8-5-07—moral values—But Judith [Giuliani] carries some distinctly un-Laure baggage. Like her husband, she has been married twice before. They also had a secret affair for a year before Mr. Giuliani announced it to the world—and to his second wife, Donna Hanover—at a news conference. NYT A1
8-4-07—corn hole--HOUSTON (Reuters) - Researchers have found 9,650 square miles of "dead zones," or oxygen-depleted water, in the Gulf of Mexico this summer, the biggest area since tracking of the annual phenomenon began. They say humans are mostly to blame for the dead waters, and that increased planting of corn to make ethanol is adding to the problem.
8-3-07—hope as strategery [Defense Secretary Robert Gates] said, “I think the developments on the political side are somewhat discouraging at the national level. He said that despite the Sunni withdrawal [from Iraq’s cabinet] “My hope is that it can all be patched back together.” NYT A10
August 2, 2007—the empire rots--Efforts to put sanctions on China over trade policies seen as hurting the US gained steam on Capitol Hill as a second Congressional panel approved a bill aimed at pressuring Beijing to revalue its currency. … The White House, wary of antagonizing China , has threatened to veto both measures. WSJ A4
“Many people remember Suez [notes Harvard professor Jeffery Frankel] but few recall “the specific way that Eisenhower forced the British to back down.” He directed to Federal Reserve to orchestrate a run on the pound [which] ”marked the end of Great Britain’s ability to conduct an independent foreign policy.” HARVARD MAGAZINE July/Aug 2007 p. 40
August 1, 2007—the empire rots--[Navy admiral nominated to become chairman of Joint Chiefs] said that the US risked breaking the Army if the Pentagon decided to maintain escalated troop levels in Iraq beyond next spring.—NYT A9
July 31, 2007—Iraq legislators went on vacation despite a warning by Bush’ Joint Chiefs that a lack of political progress is jeopardizing “surge” gains. WSJ A1
--Alaska home of Senator raided by US Agents.--
July 29, 2007—Democratic lawmakers are asking for a special prosecutor to look into Mr. Gonzales’ words and deeds. Solicitor General Paul Clement has a last chance to show that the DOJ is still minimally functionally by fulfilling that request. If that does not happen, Congress should impeach Mr. Gonzales.—NYT WK 9
July 28, 2007—Iraq’s national government is refusing to take possession of thousands of American=financed reconstruction projects, forcing the US either to hand them over to local Iraqis, who often lack the proper training and resources to keep the projects running, or commit new money to an effort that has already consumed billions of taxpayer dollars. NYT A1
July 25, 2007—“Doctors have told George he’s a walking time bomb,” confides a family friend. “With his secret drinking binges and mounting stress, he’s put his life on the edge…” high placed sources tell GLOBE they believe the 61-year-ol leader has been secretly visiting a top cardiac hospital in Ohio … “The president has made 48 visits to Ohio since he was elected even though the GOP candidates there don’t particularly want him around,” says a longtime Texas supporter. “We believe he’s been going there to sneak into the Cleveland Clinic which has some of the country’s top heart specialists.” ... Along with keeping the wraps on his crumbled marriage, Bush is hiding the fact that he’s been wearing a LifeVest defibrillator under his clothes… following a terrifying January 2002 incident… “Aides said publicly he’d choked on a pretzel, but doctors told him it was caused by atrial fibrillation…” He was also wearing it under his suit jacket during a 2004 presidential debate with John Kerry. Experts say hyperthyroidism, high blood pressure—and binge drinking—can trigger arrhythmias. Houston medical expert CL Hallmark notes that Bush’s dad has suffered from AF and hyperthyroidism. “Barbara Bush also has (hyperthyroidism,” says Hallmark. “A person whose parent has AF has 50% more likely to have it than the general population.” Bush shows other signs of cardiac problems such as a drooping mouth, memory deficits, impaired language ability and motor system problems, he says. … Dr. Justin Frank worked up a psychological profile of the president and found megalomania, delusions of persecution and omnipotence, and a sadistic indifference to others’ pain…. GLOBE July 30, 2004 pp32-33
July 23, 2007—Sen. Russ Feingold said Sunday he wants Congress to censure Bush for his management of the Iraq war and his “assault” against the Constitution. But Feingold’s own party leader in the Senate showed little interest in the idea… AP
July 20, 2007—US Generals Request Delay in Judging Iraq—NYT A1 [“But Mrs. Appelby, the dog ate my homework!!” “Send him to Michael Vick!!”]
--An outpouring of dust layered with man-made sulfates, smog, industrial fumes, carbon grit and nitrates is crossing the Pacific Ocean on prevailing winds from booming Asian economies in plumes so vast they alter the climate.—WSJ B1
--House lawmakers expressed outrage over data showing FEMA discouraged inquiries on formaldehyde levels in trailers for Katrina victims.—WSJ A1
July 19, 2007--Tho Former Senator Fred Thompson had said he did not remember working for a group seeking to ease anti-abortion rules, records show he did lobbying work. NYT A1 [so is faulty member a precondition for being a Republican, or is Thompson just trying to appear more Reaganesque??]
--US Says Insurgent Leader It Couldn't Find Never Was--NYT A10 [feel safer yet?]
--Federal health officials will do more tests on people exposed to formalehyde in trailer provided
for Gulf Coast residents after Hurricane Katrina.--NYT A19 [yes, I do feel safer...]
July 18, 2007—President Bush’s top counterterrorism advisers acknowledged that the strategy for fighting Osama bin Laden’s leadership of Al Qaeda in Pakistan had failed. --NYT A1
--The US agreed to new talks with Iran to limit Iraq chaos. WSJ A1
--VA chief Nicholson quit. The ex-GOP chairman’s 1 ½ year tenure was marred by theft of computer data and poor health-care charges. WSJ A1
--The discharge of chemicals from fertilizer, municipal wastes and other sources into the Gulf of Mexico has increased so much that government scientists are predicting that this year’s summertime “dead zone,” or the area of oxygen depletion, in the gulf may cover 8,500 square miles, the largest area ever. Not since 2002 has the area of oxygen depletion been that large — covering an area the size of New Jersey—NYT A13
--Through a combination of less sex and more contraception, pregnancy and birth rates among American teenagers as a whole have been falling since about 1991. Texas, however, has seen the smallest decline despite receiving almost $17 million in the name of virginity.
No state has more to lose in this battle than Texas, which draws more abstinence money than any other. Drive through the piney woods of northeastern Texas, and the earnest faces of adolescents appear on billboards with slogans like “No is where I stand until I have a wedding band.” The Longview Wellness Center, which sponsors Virginity Rules, collects almost $1 million annually in abstinence financing … Most studies so far have found no significant impact on behavior… NYT A1
--Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick, and three other men were indicted on federal felony charges related to dog fighting on property that he owned in Virginia.. –NYT A1, C13
--WASHINGTON, July 17 — In 2004, government auditors found that the Wackenhut Corporation tipped off its guards about a drill testing the security at Oak Ridge Reservation, a nuclear weapons production and storage site. A year later, auditors found that the company falsified records about the training the guards had received at the facility. And last year, Wackenhut security personnel were accused of allowing breaches at the
Department of Homeland Security, including allowing unauthorized people to enter the agency headquarters and opening an envelope containing a white substance near the office of Michael Chertoff, the head of the department. Despite those performance issues and problems with its work at other agencies, Wackenhut, which defends its record, continued to receive government security contracts, collecting $1.3 billion from the federal government since 2004.—NYT A13
-- The White House political affairs office directed the nation’s chief antidrug official and his deputies to appear at about 20 political events with vulnerable Republican members of Congress before the 2006 elections, a leading House Democrat charged Tuesday.--NYT A13
--July 16, 2007—grand jury indicts SC Treasurer Thomas Ravenel, for distributing cocaine (chair for Giuliani’s presidential campaign.) WSJ A1
--Ravenal’s daddy refers to NAACP as National Association for Retarded People, apologizes for offended the retarded. WSJ A9
--La. Sen. Vittner admits “serious sin” relating to being listed on DC madame’s list—Giuliani calls it a “personal matter” & retains Vittner to chair South campaign—Ibid
--SC GOP representative pleads no contest to making threats against his estrainged wife’s boyfriend. Ibid.
--SC state GOP former agricultural commissioner sentenced to prision for extortion charges relating to cock fighting . Ibid.
July 15, 2007—Russia suspends arms pact, citing US missile plan—NYT A1
--Maliki Says Iraqi Forces are able to Secure Country; asserts nation can absorb a US pullout—NYT A4
--Parts of Iraq report grim where Bush was Upbeat—NYT A4
July 10, 2007--WASHINGTON (July 10) - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales received reports detailing legal or procedural violations by FBI agents in the months before he told senators that no such abuses had occurred, The Washington post reported Tuesday.
WASHINGTON (July 10) -- A progress report on Iraq will conclude that the U.S.-backed government in Baghdad has not met any of its targets for political, economic and other reforms, speeding
July 9, 2007----Shiitte and Sunni leaders called on Iraqi citizens to take up arms to defend themselves after a weekend of violence that left more than 200 dead, including more than 100 killed in bombing north of Baghdad. Gates scrapped plans for a Latin American tour this week, staying in the US to attend meetings on Iraq as a July 15 report deadline nears. WSJ A1
--White House officials fear that the last pillars of political support among Senate Republicans or President Bush's Iraq strategy are collapsing around them, according to several administration officials and outsiders they are consulting. NYT A1
July 7, 2007--The most recent surgeon general told Congress the Bush administration routinely blocked him from speaking out on controversial issues, including stem-cell research, emergency contraception and sexual abstinence, and pressured him to support an "ideological, theological" agenda. WSJ A3
July 5, 2007--China said that nearly a fifth of the food and consumer products that it checked in a
nationwide survey this year were substandard or tainted--NYT A1
--Chinese government officials pressed the World Bank into removing estimates of the number of premature deaths linked to pollution in China--NYT A3
WASHINGTON, July 5 — After a concerted lobbying effort by property developers, mine owners and farm groups, the Bush administration scaled back proposed guidelines for enforcing a key
Supreme Court ruling governing protected wetlands and streams.
July 4, 2007—In commuting I. Lewis Libby Jr.’s 30-month prison sentence on Monday, President Bush drew on the same array or arguments about the federal sentencing system often made by defense lawyers—and routinely and strenuously opposed by his own Justice Department. … On Monday, Mr. Bush made use of every element of that critique in a detailed statement setting out his reasons for commuting Mr. Libby’s sentence—handing an unexpected gift to defense lawyers around the country… “I anticipate that we’re going to get a new motion called ‘the Libby motion,’ Prof. Podgor said… NYT A1
--In a somewhat wooden address to the nation on Saturday and in an interview with the BBC on Sunday, Mr. Brown played down the [terrorist] threat, treating the episodes as a crime rather than a threat to civilization. Yet, his minimalist approach seemed to strike a reassuring chord with Britons, many of whom had expressed fatigue with Mr. Blair’s apocalyptic view of terrorism.—NYT A8
--“I wish the Iranian people well, and only hope their experience with an inept, rigid ideologue president goes better than ours.” Oliver Stone, after Iran rejects his proposal to do a documentary on Mahmoud Ahmandinejad—NYT B2
-- WICHITA, Kan. (July 4) - As stabbing victim LaShanda Calloway lay dying on the floor of a convenience store, five shoppers, including one who stopped to take a picture of her with a cell phone, stepped over the woman, police said.
July 3, 2007--There’s one warning sign from ancient Rome’s history, though, that everybody, past and present, seems to have ignored. The juggernaut of Roman conquest stalled in only two places. One, of course, was along the Rhine, where warlike German tribes held the course of empire in check. The other place was the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates, or ancient Mesopotamia — roughly, modern Iraq. For centuries, one would-be conqueror after another marched his legions into the east, only to return in disgrace, or not at all. A few decades before Diocletian, there lived a Roman emperor named Valerian, a man from a fine old senatorial family. His army was annihilated not far east of the Euphrates. Valerian was taken as a captive back to the enemy capital, where the Persian king, according to one ancient historian, amused himself by using the Roman emperor as a footstool for mounting his horse. When the erstwhile master of the known world finally died, his skin was stuffed with straw as a trophy. NYT July 3, 2007, WK 3
June 30, 2007--The controversy over Col. Yingling's essay is part of a broader debate within the military over why the Army has struggled in Iraq, what it shoudl look like going forward, and how it should be led. I's a fight being hashed out in the form of what one Pentagon official calls "failure narratives."--WSJ, A1, A12
—[China passed new labor legislation] that foreign companies said would hurt China’s status as the leading low-wage manufacturing base, but retains others that American multinationals had lobbied vigorously to exclude. NYT A1
-{The Iraq war] has started to resemble a postapocalyptic sci-fi film like “Blade Runner.” Here is a troubled superpower headed by a pair of delusional men, with a rag-tag army fighting a constant log grade insurgency.—NYTA27
--[I think you read the adjective here first…] …the “Jesus phone,” as some technology bloggers call [the iPhone] NYT B1
6-28-07-- ... the poll showed Bush is less trusted on foreign policy than Russian President Putin by allies Britain, Germany and Canada, even as faith in Putin has plummetted. AP 6-28-07
June 26, 2007 US plan to trap and kill insurgents in Baquba fell short of expectations, officer says. NYT A6
“We were not beaten—they led us out into the desert and then they vanished! .. the barbarians! They lured us on and on, we could never catch them. They picked off the stragglers, they cut our horses loose in the night, they would not stand up to us!” [144] Coetzee, 1980
June 25, 2007 --U.S. Generals Doubt Ability of Iraqi Army to Hold Gains
June 23, 2007—The operational commander of troops battling to drive fighters with Al Qaeda from Baquba said Friday that 80% of the top Qaeda leaders in the city fled before the American-led offensive began earlier this week.—NYT A1
--[Other DOJ officials in addition to William Mercer, DOJ’s third highest official] who have resigned or said they will soon depart are Paul J. McNulty, deputy attorney general; D. Kyle Sampson, chief of staff to Mr. Gonzales; Monica M. Goodling, Mr. Sampson’s deputy; ;Michael J. Elston, Mr. McNulty’s deputy; and Michael A Battle, who led the agency’s executive office.—NYT,A8
--“CIA officers, especially the young officers, want to belong to an organization that has a history and tradition they can look up to,” said one recently retired veteran, who insisted on anonymity because he had been an undercover officer. “If you put something out there that says the founders of the agency were a bunch of criminals, that doesn’t exactly help.”—NYT A11
June 22, 2007--Mr. Hitchens was asked if he thought Mr. Falwell would go to heaven. His response: “No. And I think it’s a pity there isn’t a hell for him to go to.” WSJ, , B2
At his memorial service, Martin [Amis] recalled his father's encounter with the Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko, who said, "You atheist?" and Kingsley replied, "Well, yes, but it's more that I hate him." NYRB 5-31-07, p. 45
June 21, 2007—The [Army Corps of Engineers report] report shows that despite considerable improvement, large swaths of the city are still likely to be flooded in a major storm.—NYT A1
WASHINGTON (June 20) - The Homeland Security Department, the lead U.S. agency for fighting cyber threats, suffered more than 800 hacker break-ins, virus outbreaks and other computer security problems over two years, senior officials acknowledged to
Congress .--AP
June 19, 2007—The Bush Administration has decided that last week’s seizure of the Gaza Strip by the Islamist-militant group Hamas is good news. That optimism will be swiftly, severely tested.—WSJ A4
--Iraq is second only to Sudan on a list of the most unstable countries in the world, a ranking compiled by the journal Foreign Policy. WSJ A1
--Email records are missing for 51 of the 88 White House aides with Republican Party accounts despite archiving regulations, a House panel said. –WSJ A1
--June 17, 2007—Remarkable. Not only does Admiral [Fallon, head of US Central --Command] invite the New York Times to attend what would normally be a private meeting, thus signaling to Malaki [US puppet in Iraq] that the pressure will be publicized around the world, but then the American officials—no reference to agreement on Malaki [US puppet in Iraq]—tell [NYT reporter] Gordon “Go ahead and quote everybody directly on record.—David Broder [POST pundit], SBT E6
June 16-17,2007—Since Hamas was elected in US-back elections early last year, Mr. Bush’s strategy has been to confront the group, first by boycotting it and then by bolstering an army loyal to the Fatah leader and Mr. Abbas. But the strategy has backfired….—WSJ A4
--June 16-17,2007—The initial surge strategy was built around the theory that if the US pushed more troops into Baghdad, it could reduce the violence there and spur political national reconciliation. So far, that has happened. —WSJ A4
June 16, 2007—The debate has pitted Ms. Rice … against the few remaining hawks inside the administration, especially those in VP Cheney’s office who … are pressing for greater consideration of military strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities. NYT A1
June 15—The data show that Americans … were “tallest in the world between colonial times and the middle of th 20th century” have now “become shorter (and fatter) than Western and Northern Europeans. In fact, the US population is currently at the bottom end of the height distribution in advanced industrial countries. … height is indicative of how well the human organism thrives in its socioeconomic environment.” …
… the stagnation of American heights is clear even if you restrict the comparison to non-Hispanic, native-born whites.
And although the Komlos-Lauderdale paper suggests that growing inequality in American might be one culprit, the remarkable thing is that, as the authors themselves point out, even high-status Americans are shorter than rich Western Europeans and poor white Americans are shorter than poor Western Europeans.”
... Recently Unicef issued a report comparing a number of measures of child well-being in 21 rich countries, including health and safety, family and peer relationships and such things as whether children eat fruit and are physically active. The report put the Netherlands at the top; sure enough, the Dutch are now the world’s tallest people, almost 3 inches taller, on average, than non-Hispanic American whites. The US ended up in 20th place, below Poland, Portugal and Hungary, but ahead of Britain.
..A critical European might say that America is a land of harried parents and neglected children, of expensive health care that misses those who need it most, a society that for all its wealth somehow manages to be nasty, brutish—and short. –NYT A23
HONG KONG, June 14 — The banking authorities in the United States and Macao today began to transfer millions of dollars to North Korea and end a dispute that has stalled an agreement to dismantle the North’s nuclear programs, officials from the Macao government said REUTERS
June 13, 2007--Iraqis are failing to meet benchmarks set by US--NYT A1
--Just this week, Bradley Schlozman, a former United States attorney in Missouri who appears to have used his office to help Republicans win elections, wrote to the Senate to say that he had made untrue statements in his testimony last week. --NYT A22, lead editorial.
June 11, 2007—President Bush’s penchant for rejecting international accords may be coming home to roost. … “… foreign governments simply aren’t inclined to work with the US the way they have in the past…” says Charles Kupchan, senior fellow on Council for Foreign Relations. WSJ A4
--[Libby’s lawyers asked that his friends’ letters not be posted on the web because of] “the real possibility that these letters, once released, would be published on the Internet and their authors discussed, even mocked, by bloggers.” …
June 9, 2007—Instead of an expected new term for Gen. Pace as Joint Cheies staff chairman, top Navy officer Adm. Michael Mullen was named … Like the presidents choice for “war czar,” Mullen is a surge “skeptic.” WSJ A1
June 7, 2007—The builder of the US Embassy in Iraq faces a forced-labor probe. WSJ A1
--…signs mounted that the relatively strife-free picture of Iraq’s Kurdish north could be a mirage. There were reports of a fresh incursion by Turkey to hunt PKK militants. WSJ A1
--WalMart acknowledged … it sold fake handbags and other merchandise under Fendi’s label WSJ A1
--NYT, A24: — Five days after senior Justice Department officials gave the White House the first official list of possible
United States attorneys to be dismissed, an executive of a conservative legal group offered the Bush administration a recommendation for one replacement candidate, documents released Wednesday show.
Leonard A. Leo, the executive vice president of the Federalist Society, e-mailed the recommendation on March 7, 2005, to the Justice Department official in charge of the office that supervised the attorneys.
“You guys need a good candidate?” Mr. Leo wrote, referring to the United States attorney’s office in San Diego, then led by Carol Lam, who was not told she was being dismissed until December 2006.
Mr. Leo said he would “strongly recommend” that Mary L. Walker, the general counsel to the Air Force, be named as Ms. Lam’s successor.
The exchange suggests, contrary to testimony provided by Justice Department officials, that they started early to look for conservative
Republicans to replace the prosecutors they would eventually dismiss.
Mr. Leo said in an interview Wednesday evening that he did not remember writing the message.
June 4, 2007-- Commanders Say Push in Baghdad Is Short of Goal
By
DAVID S. CLOUD and
DAMIEN CAVEBAGHDAD, June 3 — Three months after the start of the Baghdad security plan that has added thousands of American and Iraqi troops to the capital, they control fewer than one-third of the city’s neighborhoods, far short of the initial goal for the operation, according to some commanders and an internal military assessment. NYT A1
June 3, 2007 News Analysis
With Korea as Model, Bush Team Ponders Long Support Role in Iraq
By
DAVID E. SANGERWASHINGTON, June 2 — For the first time, the Bush administration is beginning publicly to discuss basing American troops in
Iraq for years, even decades to come, a subject so fraught with political landmines that officials are tiptoeing around the inevitable questions about what the United States’ long-term mission would be there. NYT A1
June 2, 2007—[le surge] Iraqi bombers thwarts efforts to shield GI’s; billions spent, but toll is continuing to rise. NYT A1
--[the market solves everything] . NYT A1 .. the established pornography business is in decline—and the Internet is being held responsible … amateur pornographers … are flooding the market NYT A1
--[rap reaches Vermont]—Green Mountain State, where we roll on skis, don’t mess withour cows or we’llbreak your knees NYT A9
--[capitalist roaders] . The FDA warned consumers not to use toothpaste was was made in China because it may contain a poisonous chemical used in antifreeze. WSJ A1
--[the market solves everything]—The [US] military has been selling sensitive equipment to middle men acting on behalf of countries like China, Syria, and Iran, accoroding to government investigators.
--[the market solves everything]—big businesses have increasingly called for government action [on health care] . . In February 1937 GM, Chrysler, General Electric, and U.S. Steel adopted collective bargaining with the CIO before the Supreme Court’s decision “legalizing” it in April 1937. See Klare, Judicial Deradicalization of the Wagner Act and the Origins of Modern Legal Consciousness, 1937-1941, 62 MINN.L.REV. 265, 266n.7 (1978).
--[Peggy Noonan, Reagan’s speechwriter:] Leading Democrats often think their base is slightly mad but their heart is in the right place. This White House thinks it base is stupid and that its heart is in the wrong place. .. The beginning of my own sense of separation from the Bush administration came in January 2005, when the president declared that it is now the policy of the United States to eradicate tyranny in the world, and hat the survival of American liberty is dependent on the liberty of every other nation. This was at once so utopian and so aggressive that it shocked me… What I came in time to believe is that the great shortcoming of this White House, the great thing it is missing, is simple wisdom. Just wisdom—a sense that they did not invent history, that this moment is not all there is, that man has lived a long time and there are things that are true of him, that maturity is not the same thing as cowardice, that personal loyalty is not a good enough reason to put anyone in charge of anything, that the way it works in politics is a friend becomes a loyalist becomes a back, and actually at this point in history we don’t need hacks. One of the things I have come to think the past few years is that the Bushes, father and son, though different in many ways, are great wasters of political inheritance. WSJ P14
May 24, 2007
—Economic talks with China ended only with a short list of accomplishments—WSJ A1
--Snubbed by US, China finds new space partners—NYT A1
--Cheney’s daughter gave birth to a boy, the first child for her and Heather—WSJ A1
--Kentucky Opens Genesis museums with dinosaurs in Garden of Eden—NYT B1
--New Novel By Newt Gingrich: An Assault on Hawaii. On Grammar Too. NYT B8
--Bush Team told in 2003 Iraq invasion could aid Iran—SBT A5
May 22, 2007—Iraq’s military is drawing up plans to cope with any quick US military pullout, the defense minister said, as an American official warned the Bush administration may reconsider its support if Iraqi leaders don’t make major reforms by fall.—WSJ, A1
May 21, 2007---WSJ A1—China invests $3 billion in [NY,USA] private equity firm Blackstone
--Specter predicts Gonzales will quit
--Wal-Mart pulls its first designer clothing line
--Iraq Sunni VP objects to oil proposal, Iraq’s Shiite leader has TB, goes to Iran for treatment, “absence likely to create disarray in a group the US is counting onto push reforms”
5-15-07—In Iraq, apprehension mounted over now daily and deadly strikes on the walled US enclave in Baghdad. WSJ A1
--new “war czar” grew up in Michigan City, Indiana—SBT A1 [too little, too late!]
--…Bush administration officials on Tuesday decided to abandon their heretofore stalwart defense of Mr. Wolfowitz … after European finance officials openly scoffed at US suggestions … that there was still room for Mr. Wolfowitz to restore his standing within the bank and keep his job. WSJ A1
--There were many fascinating threads to the testimony on Tuesday by the former deputy attorney general, James Comey, who described the night in March 2004 when two top White House officials tried to pressure an ailing and hospitalized Attorney General John Ashcroft into endorsing President Bush’s illegal wiretapping operation.
But the really big question, an urgent avenue for investigation, is what exactly the National Security Agency was doing before that night, under Mr. Bush’s personal orders. Did Mr. Bush start by authorizing the agency to intercept domestic e-mails and telephone calls without first getting a warrant?
Mr. Bush has acknowledged authorizing surveillance without a court order of communications between people abroad and people in the United States. That alone violates the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Domestic spying without a warrant would be an even more grievous offense. NYT A26
May 16, 2007—[At the start of his summer law internship, Barack Obama was assigned a mentor] Michelle Robinson, a young litigator also with a Harvard law degree. She took him to lunch; they married four years later. In this respect, Mr. Obama is on common ground with two of his competitors … Sen. Hillary Clinton and John Edwards both call their spouses law-school sweethearts. WSJ B2
--Cecilia Sarkozy [wife of new French President Nicolas said in 2005] “I don’t see myself as first lady, that bores me.” …Cecilia left Sarko for several months in 2005, moving to America to live with a French communications consultant—reportedly a response to her husband’s affair with a French journalist … On Sunday … Cecilia did not bother to vote … When Paris isn’t fixated on Cecilia and Sarko, it’s buzzing about the town’s other power couple. As Segolene Royal tries to build on her strong showing to become the Socialist candidate for president in 2012, her relationship with the father of her four children [but NOT her husband] and the head of her party, Francois Hollande, grows more Byzantine. She scooted past Mr. Hollande—who wanted to run himself—and now she wants to excise him totally. … [Author Raphaelle Bacque noted] that the fact that Sego and Mr. Hollande were at each other’s throats, while keeping their status a mystery, had “serious political consequences. They should have been unbeatable… him at the head of the party, her as a candidate. But instead we saw two teams in endless competition.” The book quotes an interview which Mr. Hollande was asked where he would live if Sego won. “At my house!” he replied. NYT A23
5-15-07—As the scale and complexity of Iraq’s problems grow, the administration’s talent pool for confronting them shrinks steadily. WSJ A1
--DOJ No. 2 is quitting after 18 months amid a furor over the firings of US attorneys in an apparent political purge. WSJ A1
--U Texas fired is Austin campus’ financial aid-director [after] NY AG uncovered blatant conflicts.—WSJ A1
May 12, 2007—Between 100,000 and 300,000 barrels a day of Iraq’s declared oil production over the past four years is unaccounted for and could have been siphoned off through corruption or smuggling, according to a draft American government report. NYT A1
--Two years ago, Robsin C. Ashton, a seasoned prosecutor at the DOJ, learned from her boss that a promised promotion was no longer hers. “You have a Monica problem,” Ms. Ashton was told… Ms. Goodling, now 33, arrived at DOJ at the start of the Bush administration after working as an opposition researcher for the GOP National Committee during the 2000 presidential campaign. Her legal experience was limited; she had graduated in 1999 from Regent University School of Law, which was founded by the religious broadcaster Pat Robertson. NYT A1, A10
--Majority of Iraq lawmakers seek timetable for US exit—NYT A6
--The Taliban freed a French aid worker, calling it a reward for President elect Sarkosy’s stated intention to pull troops from Afghanistan. WSJ A1
May 13, 2007—Russia’s Putin brokered an agreement on Saturday with two Central Asian gas countries to build a new gas pipeline to Russia, delivering a major setback to contuing USA efforts to send Central Asia natural gas exports directly to Europe. NYT A12 --. . . overall the result is easy to predict: a regulatory pole will emerge in Eurasia, one closer to the geographic center of the world, and there will be a slowdown in the flow of goods, capital, and migration that currently nourishes the United States. Todd, 2003
May 10, 2007—Reuters--"Mr. Sarkozy has been elected. But I don't think that you can consider that there is a general agreement over his program or that he has the legitimacy to do just anything," Bernard Thibault, secretary general of the main CGT union, told Le Monde.
May 8--“We were kicked out of Algeria less than 50 years ago, so don’t tell us that we don’t remember and that we don’t understand,” Mr. Sarkozy told an audience at
Columbia University in 2004 in explaining France’s decision to stay out of the Iraq war. “We lived what you are living through in America before you. We were in Vietnam before you, and our young people died in Vietnam.”
He added: “In France, history is something that counts. Please don’t be angry with us because we remember what happened to us. Is there even a single country of the world, at any time of history, that was able to maintain itself in a sustained way in a country that was not its own, uniquely by the force of arms? Never, not a single one, even the Chinese.”
That analysis of the Iraq war sounds remarkably similar to the one articulated repeatedly by Mr. Chirac both publicly and during private meetings with Mr. Bush.
“In Algeria, we began with a sizable army and huge resources, and the fighters for independence were only a handful of people, but they won,” Mr. Chirac said in an interview in September 2003. “That’s how it is.” NYT A8
May 7, 2007—Bush approval rating at 28%.
May 7, 2007—When John Oberg, a Dept. of Edu. Researcher, warned in 2003 that student lending companies were improperly collecting hundreds of millions in federal subsidies and suggested how to correct the problem, his supervisor told him to work on something else. …This past January, the Dept. largely shut off the subsidiaries by sending a simle letter to lenders—the very measure Mr. Oberg had urged in 2003. NYT A1.
--At May 1 Mass to commemorate International Labor Day [in Brazil Liberation theology activists] draped a wooden cross with black banners labeled “imperialism” and ‘privatization’ and applauded when the homily criticized the government’s “neoliberal” economic policies, the kind Washington supports. NYT A8
--Tenet says 2 Iraqi policies weren’t debated [de-Baathification, and demobilizing the Iraqi army, cf. Germany 1946, England 1647] WSJ A3
--Giuliani firms had potential conflict of interest [in Delta bankruptcy proceedings, representing creditors and debitors] WSJ A6
May 5, 2005--…the [GOP’s] 10 candidates for president were asked during their first debate whether they believed in evolution. Three—Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas, Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas; and Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado—indicated they did not. NYT A1
May 4, 2007—A federal official whose investigation of waste and corruption in Iraq have repeatedly embarrassed the Bush administration is now being investigated himself by an oversight committee with close links to the White House. NYT A1, A12
--Florida acts to eliminate touch screen voting system. NYT A19
--A former deputy attorney general told the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday that he regarded most of the first US attorneys as highly competent prosecutors who should not have been dismissed …. My Comey served under [Gonzales and Ashcroft]. His departure was regarded as a turning point for the leadership of the Justice Department when more ideological aides, most lacking prosecutorial experience, gained power. A20
--There is yet another US attorney whose abrupt departure form office is raising disturbing questions: Debra Wong of Los Angeles. … It is hard to see what put Ms Yang on the White House list other than her investigation of [GOD Congressman] Jerry Lewis, which threatened to pull in well-connected lobbyists, military contractors and Republican contributors. … The new job that Ms. Yang landed raised more red flags. Press reports say she got a $1.5 million signing bonus to become a partner in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, a firm with strong Republican ties. NYT A26
May 3, 2007—Iraq Reconstruction is doomed, ex-chief of Global Fund says. NYT A14
--The Justice Department is investigating if the former Gonzales Aide [Ms Goodling] who took the Fifth selected prosecutors based on party affiliation [which is illegal] WSJ A1, A7
--He’s Impeachable, you know [as in Gonzales]—NYT A25
May 1, 2007—[An Israeli government commission accused Prime Minister Olmert] of having decided hastily to go to war, neglecting to ask for a detailed military plan, refusing to consult outside the army and setting “over-ambitious and unobtainable goals.”—NYT A1 [please send some of these Jews to the USA…]
--[State Dept report shows] that the two countries where large numbers of American combat troops are deployed are also where terrorism is rising fastest.—NYT A10 [never mind]
--April became the deadliest month for the US in Iraq since December. WSJ A1 [surge success]
--Venezuela Seizes [oil] projects, weakens US influence, China as new Chief Partner. WSJ A2.
--The University of Texas at Austin’s Office of Student Financial Services rated student-loan firms based on “treats” and other meals provided to university officials, school documents show.—WSJ A4 [doing business Texas style]
-Oil and Democracy don’t mix well—WSJ A 21 [no shit, Sherlock]
--Tuesday, May 1, 2007; Washington Post Staff Writer Page A07
The Senate homeland security committee plans to hold hearings this summer on the Bush administration's handling of offers of foreign aid after Hurricane Katrina, senators said yesterday.
Of $854 million offered after the storm -- in cash and oil that was to be sold for cash -- only $44 million has gone to disaster victims or reconstruction so far.
April 29, 2007—In a troubling sign for the American-financed rebuilding program in Iraq, inspectors for a federal oversight agency have found that in a sampling of 8 projects that the US had declared successes, seven were no longer operating as designed because of plumbing and electrical failures, lack of proper maintenance, apparently looting and expensive equipment that lay idle. NYT A1 (Christ, they’re getting the same as NOLA, what do they want, egg in their beer??!?!)
--Randall Tobias [former director and chairman of Indianapolis based Eli Lilly drug company, and now] head of the Bush administration’s foreign aid programs, abruptly resigned Friday after his name surfaced in an investigation into a high-priced call-girl ring … called DC Madam—AP (SBT A9) (so when the Bushies need competenc eand family values they resort to Hoosiers—but even then the liberals still complain…
April 25, 2007—Rep. Renzi’s case is raising questions about whether Bush aides delayed investigating him until after elections [and fired the AZ USDA in charge of Renzi’s case]. WSJ,A1
--alternative labels for “Long War”: “whatmamacallit”; “Global War on Terror”; “the War on International Islamist Terror Networks”; “World War IV”; “Gloal Struggle Against Violent Extremism”; “War on Islamofascism”—WSJ A15
--The reality, as we’re learning, is that there is no such thing as a quick counterinsurgency. The average full-blown insurgency takes 10 years to defeat; many last decades… --ibid.
--[Regarding Tony Blair] Bush needed … that the American people heard approval for the war in an English accent.—Martin Amis, WSJ D10
--The public representations made by American leaders … seemed so at odds with what Mr. Halberstam and the other reporters were seeing that they came to regard the official briefings as little more than acts of comedy … Similar clashes between the Bush administration and the press have unfolded during the war in Iraq … NYT A4
--Panel hears About Falsehoods in 2 Wartime Incidents [Pat Tillman, Jessica Lynch] –NYT A16
--The Pentagon’s new intelligence chief intends to dismantle an antiterrorism database that civil liberties groups have criticized for fathering information about antiwar groups, churches, and student activitsts…. NYT A16
April 24, 2007--FEMA awarded $3.6 billion in Katrina trailer contracts so haphazardly it may have broke the law, and inspector general report found.--WSJ A1
--US Command shortens Life of “Long War” As a reference—NYT A10.
WEEKEND UPDATE
April 21—In the five years since Republican Fred Thompson left the Senate, he has maintained his political fund-raising account---and it has paid more money to his son than it has contributed to help elect Republicans to Congress, records show …When former Rep. Mike Oxley (R.,Ohio) left Congress last year, he spent about $75,000 in PAC funds to throw himself a farewell party. The PAC run by former Sen. Phil Gramm (R.,Texas) spent a few thousand dollars on season tickets for the Washington Nationals baseball team. WSJ, A4
--[The case of GOP Congressman Renzi, whose wife’s office was searched by the FBI] would add fuel to the fire storm over the Bush Administration’s firing of federal prosecutors last year. Paul Charlton, the US Attorney who had been overseeing the case, was among those dismissed at the behest of the White House. WSJ A4
--Colleges turn to lenders for student counseling required by government—NYT A1
--Within hours of [former NFL star] Cpl. Pat Tillman’s death, the Army was engaged in an information lockdown. A11
--The Education Dept’s inspector general has asked the DOJ to investigate Reading First, the Bush Administration’s $6 billion program to teach poor children to read by third grade. The inspector general, John P. Higgins, testified about his request at Congress’ opening hearing on Reading First, which awards grants to states to buy teaching materials and for training. Mr. Higgins has issued a half-dozen reports finding conflicts of interests, cronyism, and bias in how federal officials and private consultants operated the program and awarded the grants. NYT A12
--[Venezuela has demanded that the USA extradite Luis Posada’s, 1976 bomber of Cuban airline-] But the Bush Administration has refused to extradite Mr. Posada to Venezuela or Cuba, claiming it fears he will be tortured in those countries. NYT A25
--Labor Rights Issue Stalls Trade Pact Talks. “Another fear is that governments in Latin America, perhaps inspired by anti-American figures like Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, might use trade deals to try to overturn “right to work” laws in states, which bar employers from requiring workers to join unions.” B2
--Vermont senate calls for impeachment of Bush and Cheney. NYT A12
--Fort Wayne Indiana [home of Dan Quayle and Frank Burns] is in the middle of a Buddhist temple boom. … Ft Wayner Donna Davis: “If they want to live here, why can’t they start acting like Americans?” Ft Wayner Kelli Lawson: “I can’t stand them. It’s strange to us, so we don’t like it.” A15
--abortion saves dead babies!!—Pope Benedict XVI has reversed centuries of traditional Roman Catholic teaching on limbo, approving a Vatican report released Friday that says there were “serious” grounds to hope that children who die without being baptized can go to heaven. … “If there’s no limbo and we’re not going to revert to St. Augustine’s teaching that unbaptized infants go to hell, we’re left with only one option, namely, that everyone is born in the state of grace,” said The Rev. Richard McBrien, professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame. [the Vatican] said it was reassessing traditional teaching on limbo in light of “pressing” pastoral needs—primariy the growing number of abortions and infants born to non-believeres who die without being baptized. AP, SBT A5
April 22, 2007.—In turnabout, infant deaths climb in South. Race disparity persists. NYT A1
-Federal health officials impose only minimal penalties on nursing homes repeatedly cited for mistreatment of patients, Congressional investigators say in a new report. NYT A17
--TERRY EAGLETON: I find that for a left-winger like me, the problem is that either your children out-left you or they becomes fascists. … I find my visits to the States getting shorter because I can’t take the general culture very much. I know I am back in the states because at the hotel breakfasts they are all talking about money. NYTMag, 21.
-- BURIED IN THE BITTER WATERS: The Hidden History of Racial Cleansing in America. By Elliot Jaspin. (Basic Books, $26.95.) Using the tools of his trade, computer-assisted reporting, Jaspin discovered a troubling demographic pattern: between 1890 and 1930, United States census data showed 260 suspect counties in which the black population appeared to fall suddenly by more than 50 percent. Jaspin ingeniously investigated the historical background of those statistical anomalies in 12 counties and found unequivocal evidence of mass racial expulsions. These incidents often began when the more familiar form of Jim Crow vigilantism, lynching, failed to satiate the mob's fury. The underlying motivation was usually economic competition. Two waves of intimidation in 1905 and 1909 that drove blacks out of Boone County, Ark., were typical. Ostensibly precipitated by crimes attributed to African-Americans, the expulsions followed closely on the arrival of an influx of unemployed black laborers. Why was this history "hidden"? Jaspin points out that the concept of "racial cleansing" is of recent vintage, and wasn't understood by contemporaries, including the
N.A.A.C.P., as a distinct category of persecution. His implied analogy to the Balkan ethnic cleansing campaigns of the 1990s is imprecise, since these American atrocities seem to have been more spontaneous and isolated. But Jaspin passionately defends his use of the term, and he recounts a rancorous struggle with his employers at Cox Newspapers, who eventually published only expurgated versions of the articles that are the basis of this book. For Jaspin, who was later demoted from editor to reporter, this was "a demonstration of exactly how racial cleansings had come to be concealed in a thicket of lies, half-truths and euphemisms."—NYTBR 22
April 20, 2007- - Time and again, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales claimed a hazy memory Thursday about his role in the firings of eight federal prosecutors. Seventy-one times, in fact. AP
—Iraq “war is lost”.—Sen. Maj. Leader Reid.
--USA—FBI searches home of California [GOP] lawmaker—NYT A15
April 19—USA—Five Catholic men expand the potential dating pool for frustrated priests. NYTA1
--Iran—The Iranian Supreme Court has overturned the murder convictions of six members of a prestigious state militia who killed five people they considered “morally corrupt.” --NYT A1
--India---India’s overburdened judicial system has two new cases after three lawyers filed complaints against Richard Gere 57 for kissing the actress Shilpa Shetty 31 at an AIDS awareness rally in New Delhi.—NYTB2
--USA--[David Inglesias of New Mexico who was bored by ACORN “voter fraud” will be] Central to [Gonzales] Inquiry—NYT A6
--USA—The House committee on Wednesday also released a letter it said it had received from Justice Department employees in which they ocmplain about a partisan bias they said exists in hiring law school students or young lawyers for summer internships or new jobs. The letter says senior aides to Mr. Gonzales removed from considered any candidates who “had interned for a Hill Democreat, clerked for a Democratic judge, worked for a ‘liberal’ cause, or otherwise appeared to have ‘liberal’ learning.”—NYT A6
4-18-2007--Gen. McCaffrey told Congress the war has hurt the military to the point of strategic peril... WSJ A1
--A House panel is to vote today on giving immunity in return for testimony by a Gonzales aide who took the Fifth in the US attorneys flap -- WSJ A1
--For-profit dialysis chains give patients a Medicare-paid anemia drug at a rate 3 times greater than nonprofits, a study found. WSJ A1
LONDON, April 16 — A senior politician in the Labor Party of Prime Minister
Tony Blair said Monday that the Bush administration’s commonly used phrase “war on terror” strengthens extremists. NYT
APRIL 14, 2007. --In foreign capitals, and among the bank’s staff, it has been noted that Mr. Wolfowitz passion for fighting corruption … seemed to evaporate when it came to reviewing lending to Iraq, Pakistan, and Afghanistan … NYT A6 [ho ho ho]
--Meghan O’Sullivan, a bright and lovely 37 year old redhead who is the deputy national security adviser, is part of the cordon of adoring and protective female staffers around the president, including Condi, Harriet Miers, Karen Hughes and Fran Townsend. Even though her main experience was helping Paul Bremer set up the botch Iraq occupation and getting a reputation back in Washington “for not knowing how much she didn’t know,” as George Packer put it in “The Assassins’ Gate,” Ms. O’Sullivan was officially promoted nearly two years ago to be the highest-ranking White House official working exclusively on Iraq and Afghanistan. It was clear that she was out of her depth, lacking the heft to deal with the Pentagon and State Department, or the seniority level with W. “Meghan-izing the problem” became a catch phrase in Baghdad for papering over chaos with five-point presentations. NYT A27
--The Washington Post reported that at least five retired four-star generals have refused to be considered [to be war czar to oversee Iraq and Afghanistan]; the paper quoted Marine Gen. Jack Sheehan as saying, “The very fundamental issue is, they don’t know where the hell they’re going.”—NYT A 27 [a troop surge will solve everything]
APRIL 15 2007—American marines reacted to a bomb ambush with excessive force in eastern Afghanistan last month, hitting groups of bystanders and vehicles with machine-gun fire in a rampage that covered 10 miles of highway and left 12 civilian dead including an infant and three elderly men, according to a report published by an Afghan human rights commission. … One 16 year old newly wed girl was cut down .. A 75 year old man walking to his shop was hit by so many bullets that his son did not recognize the body… NYT A1 [winning hearts & minds]
--North Korea Misses Important Deadline NYT A6 [axis of evil running scared]
--Lawyers for two men charged with illegally ejecting two people from a speech by President Bush in 2005 are arguing that the president’s staff can lawfully remove anyone who expresses points of view different from his. NYT A16
--Students who participated in sexual abstinence programs were just as likely to have sex as those who did not, according to a study ordered by Congress. NYT A18
4-12-2007 --three column headline on front page of NYT re: "IN 5-YEAR EFFORT SCANT EVIDENCE OF VOTER FRAUD." End of article mentions MIssouri shill trying to make a mountain out of Acorn molehile.
--credit to Counselor Andy for calling our attention to that long article in a recent NEW YORKER which had so many words it made my head hurt. In APril 12, 2007 WSJ p A4, headline refers to growing Wolfowitz woes, who is apparently facing a probe, for, among other things a pay-and-promo deal he cut for Shala Riza "who has been romantically involved" with this freedom fighter for Iraq.
--WSJ A1: Inspired and concerned over the rise of militant Islame, European atheists are trying to organize like Christians, and playing to packed houses.
--NYT A1, A8: US Sees Iranians aiding Sunnis in Iraq, not just their co-religionist SHiites. Duh....
--Finally, author Kurt Vonnegut has apparently passed away. To honor him I suggest interested
parties provide their favorite Vonnegut citations. It may take me some time to get my list together. For the short term my favorite one is that the American flag should be a jolly roger with the slogan I'VE GOT MINE JACK, FUCK YOU!! pasted at the bottom.
April 12, 2007--Everyone is affected, but not equally. Black men in their early thirties are imprisoned at seven times the rate of whites in the same age group. Whites with only a high school education get locked up twenty times as often as those with college degrees. …For much of the twentieth century, about one American in a thousand was confined to a cell. The proportion of Americans behind bars started rising in the mid-Seventies, and by 2003 had done so for twenty-eight consecutive years. Counting jails, there are now seven Americans in every thousand behind bars. That is nearly five times the historic norm and seven times higher than most of Western Europe. … Despite the crackdown, white men with college degrees are only slightly more likely than previously to end up in prison. Among black men with college degrees, the odds of imprisonment have fallen. But by 2000, high school dropouts of either race were being locked up three times as often as they had been two decades before. And racial disparities have become immense. By the time they reach their mid-thirties, a full 60 percent of black high school dropouts are now prisoners or ex-cons …The prison expansion reflected inequality. The prison expansion created inequality. The prison expansion hid inequality from view….The more African-Americans a state contains, the more likely it has been to ban felons from voting. Tracing the statutes' history in states such as Virginia and Florida, Manza and Uggen find that they were enacted along with grandfather clauses, poll taxes, and literacy tests as "another means through which the African American vote was restricted."—NYRB, April 12, 2007
April 11, 2007--Panel Said to Alter Finding on Voter Fraud --By
IAN URBINAWASHINGTON, April 10 — A federal panel responsible for conducting election research played down the findings of experts who concluded last year that there was little voter fraud around the nation, according to a review of the original report obtained by The New York Times.
Instead, the panel, the Election Assistance Commission, issued a report that said the pervasiveness of fraud was open to debate. NYT
4-10-07—WSJ devotes full half page to discussion of Congress’ discovery of White House use of RNC e-mail accounts, so as to avoid documentation of White House activity. A4.
--We [in New Orleans] have an economy entirely made up of T-shirts …That is our major import and export.”—Edward Blakely, executive director for recovery management in NOLA, NYT A15
--Tens of thousands of protestors loyal to Moktada al-Sadr, the Shiite cleric, took to the streets of the holy citiy of Najaf on Monday in an extraordinarily disciplined rally to demand an end to the American military presence in Iraq, burning American flags and changing “Death to America!” … a small number of conservative Sunni Arabs took part in the march.” NYT A1 [this is called being greeted as liberators]
WASHINGTON, April 10 — House Democrats on Tuesday subpoenaed more documents from the Justice Department, ratcheting up efforts to obtain unedited copies of hundreds of documents pertaining to personnel matters surrounding last year’s dismissals of eight
United States attorneys. …
In a separate development, Senate Democrats asked Mr. Gonzales to turn over documents related to a prosecution of a state contracting official in Wisconsin. In a case involving corruption charges brought by Steven Biskupic, the United States attorney in Milwaukee, the official, Georgia Thompson, was convicted.
But last week, after an appeals court heard oral arguments, a federal appeals court took the unusual step of ordering Ms. Thompson’s immediate release from prison. The senators sought all documents at the Justice Department in connection with the case, which was the subject of intense political advertising last fall against Gov. James E. Doyle, a Democrat. NYT A20
4-7-07—A top Gonzales aide resigned after refusing to testify to Congress. … She is the second, maybe third high official to leave as the flap as intensified WSJ A1. “May God bless you richly as you continue your service to America,” Ms Goodling wrote to Mr Gonzales … Ms. Goodling, 33, was not widely known before her refusal to testify. She is a 1995 graduate of Messiah College in Grantham, Pa., and received her law degree at Regent University in Virginia Beach … Grantham describes itself as “committed to an embracing evangelical spirit,” while Regent was founded by Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson. NYT A1, A9
Three members of the US attorney’s office in Minneapolis resigned their management posts … WSJ A1; … in an apparent protest of the leadership of MN US Attorney Rachel Paulose, 34, who was appointed a year ago after serving as an assistant to Gonzales –SBT A3; Paulose’s swearing in on March 9 .... stirred debate in local legal circles because of the ceremonial trappings, including a performance by a municipal choir and a Marine Corps color guard, at the even attened by more than 300 people at the city’s University of St. Thomas law school. ….Paulose … is one of several conservative lawyers who worked at DOJ HQ or the White House who have been named to top jones in USDA offices on an interim basis. NYT A9
--An Iraq suicide bomber billed 27 in Ramadi with a truck rigged with chlorine gas. Use of the chemical tactic is growing. … Meanwhile 13,000 National Guard troops from Oklahoma, Indiana and Arkansas may be ordered back to Iraq in early 2008. WSJ A1
--McCain says he erred on Iraq Security NYT A6
April 5, 2007—China’s main trade union accused McDonalds and Yum, which owns KFC and Pizza Hut, of underpaying part-time workers. WSJ A1 [creeping capitalism]
--[Research Director of a Chinese drug maker] tossed a box of antibiotics made by Abbot Laboratories on the table and told [his] scientists to use the American drug maker’s pills their their application for approval from [China’s] drug watchdog. [creeping capitalism]
--The Directors of financial aid at Columbia University, the University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Southern California held shares in a student loan company that each of the universities recommends to student borrowers, and in at least two cases, profited handsomely. NYT A1 [creeping capitalism]
--President bush used the Congressional recess on Wednesday to push through his choice to be ambassador of Belgium and to fill two domestic policy positions, provoking Democratic Ire with all three appointments. … The ambassadorship will be filled by Sam Fox … [who] donated $50,000 to the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth … In another of the appointments on Wednesday, Mr.Bush named Andrew Biggs, a champion of privatization, as the deputy commissioner of the Social Security Administration … Democrats also complained about the appointment of Susan E. Dudley as administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the OMB, a powerful position that involves review of regulations from major federal agencies. Ms. Dudley has written that government regulation is not warranted “in the absence of a significant market failure…” NYT A12
3-21-07 I think what the President is saying is that if you don’t impeach him now, you’re a bunch of pussies! Well, are you? Are you a bunch of pussies?—Stephen Colbert, COLBERT REPORT
4-5-07—The US military said 8 American soldiers have been killed in the Baghdad area in the past 3 days. A Black Hawk helicopter went down under fire south of the capital; all nine on board lived. Some National Guard units face second Iraq tours.—WSJ A1 [Hoosier hospitality]
--Ford said its top executives received total pay of $62 million last year even as the auto maker lost $12.6 billion.—WSJ A1
--[AFL CIO] has begun a campaign to oust the Verizon Communications Inc. board members who oversaw what the union says is $100 million in pay fo Chief Exectuive Ivan Seidenberg over a five year period in which company shares have sagged.—WSJ A3
4-4-07—For years, most service industry jobs that were moved to countries like India were considered relatively low-skill tasks like answering customer inquiries. But that has been changing in recent years, and increasingly the jobs of Western white-collar elites in fields as diverse as investment banking, aircraft engineering and pharmaceutical research have been flowing to India and a few other developing countries… Alan Blinder, a former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve … recently described out-sourcing as a “third Industrial Revolution” that, by his estimate, poses a risk to the employment of as many 28 million to 42 million workers in the United States. NYT C1,C4
April 4, 2007 The Wal-Mart Store Inc. worker fired last month for intercepting a reporter’s phone calls says he was part of a larger, sophisticated surveillance operation that included snooping not only on employees, but also on critics, stockholders and the consulting firm McKinsey & Co. … In late spring 2006, Wal-Mart learned that several anti-WalMart groups might protest at the annual shareholders meeting in June. Company executives were concerned the civil rights group Acorn and local UP Against the Wal members would disrupt its meeting. WSJ, B1, B2
April 3, 2007—The number of people in China who cannot read or write grew by 30 million over the last five years, to 116 million, wiping out years of gains against illiteracy. NYT A9 [capitalist roaders…]
[McCain’s Congressional delegation] arrived at [a Baghdad market] with more than 100 soldiers in armored Humvees—the equivalent of an entire company—and attack helicopters circled overhead … The soldiers redirected traffic from the area and restricted access to the Americans … and sharpshooters were posted on the roofs. The congressmen wore bulletproof vests through their hourlong visit. … “like a normal outdoor market in Indiana in the summertime,” offered Rep. Mike Pence—NYT A1, A10 [I never go to the market without my Hummer, a company of soldiers, a bulletproof vest and helicopters—what’s the issue here??]
March 31, 2007—After more than 500 Iraqis died in Sunni suicide bombings and subsequent Shiite revenge killings this week, the [US] military said such provocations have boosted the bombing rate 30% since the “surge” started. WSJ A1
--The Bush Administration imposed new economic sanctions against China [over its export of glossy paper] … The dollar slipped in the foreign exchange market following the late-morning announcement, as currency traders showed nervousness about rising trade tensions—particularly since China happens to hold a large quantity of US currency, stock and bonds.—WSJ A3
-“’68 will never end. Everybody always says blame ’68 forhtis or that. But it’s still going on.” --Joschka Fischer, former German Social Democrat Foreign Minister—WSJ A11
March 29,2007—US Iraq Role Is Called Illegal by Saudi King. [time for a regime change!?!] NYT A1
--Tax Data from 2005 Shows the Greatest US Income Inequality Since the Depression
March[time for a regime change!?!] NYT C10
March 28, 2007—Britain’s Blair threatened to release evidence that Iran violates Iraqi territorial waters if 15 captured Briton’s are not quickly freed [because they’re a bunch of lions, not a bunch of…] WSJ A1
--The acting Army medical chief said nurse hiring lags behind caseloads because Iraq and Afghan wars have gone on longer than planned. [duhooo…] ibid
--[Princeton University economist and former Federal Reserve Board vice chairman] Alan Blinder … has changed his [free trade] message who [now] say that downsides of trade in today’s economy are deeper than they once realized. . [duhooo…] ibid
March 27/28, 2007 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An FBI agent was warned to keep quiet about the dismissal of a U.S. attorney after he told a newspaper her firing would hurt the agency's ongoing investigations and speculated politics was involved, a U.S. Senate panel heard on Tuesday….
On January 13, the San Diego Union-Tribune quoted Dan Dzwilewski, head of FBI's San Diego office, as saying Lam was crucial to ongoing investigations. "I guarantee politics is involved," he was quoted saying.
Feinstein said her chief counsel had called the FBI's San Diego office to verify the accuracy of the story. She said the office confirmed it was true "but they also said they'd been warned to say no more."
Mueller said he had heard about the article and followed up.
"Well, my understanding is that our chief out there believes he was misquoted (and) ... that our investigations were continuing, without any diminishment," he said.
Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, noted that among the shifting reasons given for firing prosecutors was failure to energetically pursue voter-fraud investigations.
Schumer asked Mueller if he was aware of any FBI voter-fraud probe that should have resulted in an indictment but did not.
"Not to my knowledge," the FBI director replied.
March 27, 2007—A lawyer for a Justice Department official involved in the controversial firings of eight
United States attorneys said today that his client would not testify on Capitol Hill because she is convinced she would not be treated fairly.
The official, Monica Goodling, the Justice Department’s liaison to the White House, is invoking her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and so will decline to answer “any and all questions regarding the firings,” her lawyer, John M. Dowd, said….
… Sunday, the
Democratic National Committee provided a list of quotations from Mr. Lott criticizing former President
Bill Clinton for invoking executive privilege during the investigation into his relationship with
Monica Lewinsky, including one in 1998 in which Mr. Lott called it improper and said, “It looks like they are hiding something.”
March 26, 2007. Bush Reorients Rhetoric, Acknowledges Income Gap.—WSJ, A2. ---walk the talk!!
--Iran remained defiant following new Security Council sanctions; British sailors may be put on trial. WSJ A1.
March 25, 2007 — An accumulating body of evidence is at odds with the statements of Attorney General
Alberto R. Gonzales that he played little role in the deliberations over the dismissal of eight
United States attorneys.
Mr. Gonzales has said he did not take part in any discussions of the dismissal effort, and left the planning and execution of the removals up to D. Kyle Sampson, his former chief of staff.
But e-mail messages and other documents released by the Justice Department in recent days suggest that Mr. Gonzales was told of the dismissal plan on at least two occasions, in 2005 when the plan was devised and again in late 2006 shortly before the firings were carried out. …
Justice Department officials first said the White House approved the ouster plan only after it was initiated by Justice, but e-mail messages have shown that officials at the White House initiated the effort, shortly after the 2004 elections.
Justice Department officials at first gave no reasons for the firings, then cited performance problems with the prosecutors, and, finally, acknowledged that performance could not be cited in each of the cases as the rationale for the firings.
Officials have said that politics played no role in the firings. But they later acknowledged that they had received repeated telephone calls from one Republican senator who sought the ouster of the New Mexico prosecutor, and that a second United States attorney, in Arkansas, was dismissed to make room for a former aide to Mr. Rove….
Mr. Gonzales also said, more explicitly: “I never saw documents. We never had a discussion about where things stood.”
This directly conflicts with documents released late Friday, which show he headed an hourlong meeting on the ouster plan with key members of his senior staff 10 days before the firings. –NYT A1f
March 24, 2007--Attorney General Roberto Gonzales approved plans to fire several US attorneys in a November meeting, according to documents released Friday that contradict earlier claims that he was not closely involved in the dismissals. –AP
March 23, 2007--A total of 3196 active-duty soldiers deserted the Army last year, or 853 more than previously reported... IN 2005 ... the Army now says that 2543 soldiers deserted, not the 2011 it had reported.--NYT A11
--[The movie '300'] irks Iranian president--NYT B5
March 22, 2007--President Bush is a war criminal. Let impeachment be the first step toward national reconciliation--and toward penance for the outrages committed in our nation's name. --Rocky Anderson, mayor of Salt Lake City [sic] NYT A1
3-21-2007--Top US officials could face war crimes prosecutions, said Spain's Judge Gazon, who
relentlessly pursued Chile's Pinochet and others. WSJ A1
3-21-07 And if you guys really want to fight, why don’t you buckle on your balls like men and impeach the President? … Go ahead, impeach him! Impeach him twice!! After all, the President’s been baiting you guys for six years. .. WMDs. Iraq. Katrina. Valerie Plame. Signing statements. Torture. Wiretaps. Secret prisons. US Attorneys! I think what the President is saying is that if you don’t impeach him now, you’re a bunch of pussies! Well, are you? Are you a bunch of pussies? I think you are…—Stephen Colbert, COLBERT REPORT
March 16, 2007--NYT reports that e-mails show that White House political advisor
Karl Rove made an inquiry about firing federal prosecutors on or before Jan. 6, 2005, indicating that Rove and Gonzales "had considered the proposal to replace prosecutors earilier than eithier has previously acknowedlged." A1
3-15-07WORLD NEWS--Iraqis’ Progress Lags Behind Pace set by Bush Plan NYT A1
--US, Iraq launch Campaign to cut Oil Smuggling. Main Goal is to Stem Cash Flow to Insurgents; Corruption Runs Deep. WSJ A1.
--Clinton says she would keep some GI’s in Iraq to Deter Qaeda and Iran—NYT A12
--In response to the question “What were the real reasons for our invasion of Iraq?” retired air force lieutenant colonel Karen Kwiatowski, a former strategist inside the Near East Division of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, suggested: “One reason has to do with enhancing our military-basing posture in the region. We had been very dissatisfied with our relations with Saudi Arabia, particularly the restrictions on our basing … So we were looking for alternative strategic locations beyond Kuwait, beyond Qatar, to secure something we had been searching for since the days of Carter—to secure the energy lines of communication in the region. Bases in Iraq, then, were very important.” In the spring of 2005, Kwiatowski further noted, Pentagon leaders regarded Iraqi basse as vital for protecting Israel and as potential launching pads for preventive wars in Syria and Iran, part of the administration’s strategic vision of reorganizing the entire region as part of an American sphere of influence. So it seems likely we intend to stay there whether the Iraqis want us or not.—Johnson, Nemesis, p 158
FINANCIAL PAGE—The US settled charged with Chiquita, which admitted dealing with a right-wing Columbian militia Washington lists as terrorist. WSJ A1
--Giuliani’s firm has lobbied on behalf of an oil company controlled by Hugo Chavez NYT A1, A19
FAITH SECTION--[Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky, asserted that ] “homosexuality would remain a sin even if it were biologically based, and by his support for possible medical treatment that could switch an unborn gay baby’s sexual orientation to heterosexual … Mohler wrote that proof of a biological basis for homosexuality would not alter the Bible’s condemnation of homosexuality… AP [time to get a new Bible, dude—or a new brain…]
3-13-07—Russia said the launch of Iran’s Russian-built nuclear-power plant will be postponed because of Iranian payment delays, reflecting Moscow’s growing irritation with its partner. Iran issued a bank note that features a nuclear symbol. –WSJ A1
3-12-07—In a revision to the White House’ $94.3 billion war spending request, Bush asked Congress Friday for $3.2 billion to pay to send 4,700 troops to Iraq, on top of the 21,500 ordered in January, and 3,500 troops to expand security forces in Afghanistan. –WSJ A1
--US Raid in Iraq May Have Hit Wrong Town—WSJ A6
March 5, 2007—China announced an 18% increase in military spending, its largest in a decade. The $44.49 billion defense budget for 2007 is to be approved at the annual legislative session that opened today. Negroponte called on Beijing to be more forthcoming, but China countered that its budget was modest next to US spending.—WSJ A1
March 4, 2007--home grown stimulating sexual devices: A sexual abuse scandal in the Texas juvenile justice system has state politics in an uproar, with accusations that damaging reports were doctored and shelved and sexual predators were allowed to resign without facing charges. NYT A16, 3-4-07
--The Veterans Affairs Department keeps “two sets of books”—one telling the public that the official count of nonfatal battlefield casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan stands at 23,000, the other showing an actual patient count of 205,000. NYT WK12, 3-4-07
--…do you know why I think George W. Bush is so pissed off at Arabs? They brought us algebra. Also the numbers we use…--Vonnegut, MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY, 77
March 3, 2007--private enterprise supports the troops: [The House Committee] also made public an internal hospital memo written last September that warned that an Army decision to privatize support services at Walter Reed was causing an exodus of experienced career personnel and putting patient care “a risk of mission failure.” … Before rushed renovations were made last month, the building had moldy walls, stained carpets and infestations of rats and cockroaches. NYT A10
--they were searching lockers for stimulating sexual devices: Administrators at a high school where eight students died in a tornado [in Alabama] were warned nearly three hours before the twister struck, raising questions about whether classes should have been dismissed earlier. AP, 3-3-07
March 1, 2007—US knew of threats as Cheney visited base; Signs of miscues by security forces during the vice president’s trip to Afghanistan. –NYT A6 [Can Kaiser George lose two wars in two countries in two terms?]
--NBC faces trials bringing “Law & Order” to France: “We took out any reference to the mobs,” says writer Franck Ollivier “We don’t really don’t have that here … Unlike Americans, we all nice people.” --WSJ A1
Feb. 28, 2007—In a turnabout that acknowledges mounting criticism over the course of US diplomacy in the Mideast, the Bush administration will join an Iraq-sponsored “neighbors meeting” next month [including Iran and Syria] WSJ A1
--Cheney [getting his first exposure to military action] was taken to a bomb shelter at a US military base in Afghanistan after a suicide bomber blew himself up outside the main gate in an attack the Taliban said was aimed at the Vice President. WSJ A1
--As the US struggles to contain Iran and its nuclear program, it is bumping into a new impediment: an assertive Russia bent on regaining lverage—and markets—in the Middle East.—WSJ A1
--Shanghai sneezes, Dow drops 400 points
--ethics panel forbids a white student studying ethnicity to interview African-American PhD students “because it might be traumatic for them”—NYT A1
Feb. 26, 2007—Iran announced Sunday that it had launched a research rocket that attained a suborbital altitude, a test that appeared to move it closer toward its aim of putting its own satellites into space.—NYT, A10
. In April 2003, at the National Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, air force secretary James Roche said, “If allies don’t like the new paradigm of space dominance, they’ll just have to learn to accept it.” [311] Chalmers Johnson, SORROWS OF EMPIRE (2004)
Feb 22, 2007 UNHAPPY FACTS
--The Pentagon is planning to send more than 14000 National Guard troops back to Iraq next year, shortening their off=duty time to meet the demands of GWB’s buildup, DOD officials said Wednesday.—NYT A1
--Iraq insurgents employ chlorine in bomb attacks—Sign of adaptive tactics.—NYT, A1
--About 460 Danish soldiers under British command in southern Iraq will be withdrawn by August … and Lithuania said it was considering pulling out a small contingent of 53 soldiers in the south. –NYTA8
--Approximate figures for some coalition forces: Estonia, 40; Latvia, 140; Czech Rep.: 100; Albania 120; Macedonia, 40; Bosnia/Herz., 40; Bulgaria, 150; Armenia, 50; Kazakhstan, 30; Mongolia, 130. NYT A8.
--[US diplomatic gains against Iran] are in danger of being erased, thanks to the growing economic partnership between Tehran and Beijing.—WSJ, A14
HAPPY PILLS
--The failure of the Bush administration to take Beijing to task [for its Iranian deals], however, is far less comprehensible—WSJ,14 {not when yer bought & paid for, bucko}
---Bush aides painted British Iraqi-pullout plans as a sign of progress.—WSJ, A1
Feb. 21, 2007.
BUY AMERICAN
Renault and Nissan aren’t interested in buying or linking up with … Chrysler Group. WSJ A1
TROOP SURGE
Britain’s Blair is to announce a new withdrawal timetable today, with 1,500 troops due home shortly.—WSJ A1
FEEL HEALTHY YET?Overhall, health spending in the US is expected to double to $4.1 trillion by 2016, consuming 20% of the GNP, up from the current 16%, according to a new federal study.--WSJ, A1
FEEL SAFE YET?
--Federal prosecutors counted immigration violations, marriage fraud and drug trafficking among antiterrorism cases in the four years after Sept. 11 despite there being no evidence linking them to terror activity, a DOJ audit found Tuesday.—NYT,A17
Feb. 19, 2007—[Harlequin Romance] is now embarking on a 16-book paperback series, all of which will have Nascar settings… NYT A12
--Clint Eastwood, inducted into the French Legion of Honor, said that his “great ambition one day is to do a French film, become a French director.”—NYT B2
--Brittney Spears shaves the rest of her body—ibid.
--Canadian phone company Telus now officers “soft-core pornography downloads for cellphone users.”—NYT--C7
Feb. 17, 2007—A leader of the Texas House of Representatives apologized Friday for circulating an appeal to ban the teaching of evolution as derived from “Rabbinic writings” and other Jewish texts… [the Republican solon] said he had received the information from Ben Bridges, a Georgia legislator..—NYT A28
--Nascar columnists, pundits and fans, even a Web site dedicated to being “against racing Toyotas” have chimed in against the auto maker’s entry into Nascar.—NYTA27
--In fact, the biggest, baddest cheaters in all of sports are not in baseball or the NFL. They are in NASCAR. And few fans seem to care. –CBS Sports, Mike Freeman, Feb. 14.
--The last straw was this week when I saw NASCAR for Dummies. Let me save you the $12.99. It’s rednecks drinking beer and watching other rednecks turn left.—Bill Maher
Feb. 16, 2007. –Pressing Allies, President Warns of Afghan Battle. “The speech renewed criticism from Democrats that had the US not been tied down in Iraq, the situation in Afghanistan would not have turned dire. At the same time, some Republican lawmakers said Mr. Bush’s new strategy would not do enough to tamp down the Afghan drug trade. Outside experts criticized the president for painting too rosy a picture. The speech was also a striking effort by the White House to focus attention back on Afghanistan at a time when Congress is debating resolutions criticizing Bush’s strategy in Iraq…” NYT A1
--South has highest heart disease level. Highest levels of heart disease (7% or more) are in AZ, TX, OK, MO, LA, WVA, KY, TN, LA,MS,AL, FL—AP (SBT A7)
--“…American states with wider economic differences also have higher [infant] mortality rates.” Wilkinson, UNHEALTHY SOCIETIES: The Afflictions of Inequality p.78
Feb. 15, 2007—When Gen. Tommy R. Franks and his top officers gathered in August 2002 to review an invasion plan for Iraq, it reflected a decidedly upbeat vision of what the country would look like four years after Saddam Hussein was outsted from power. A broadly representative Iraqi government would be in place. The Iraqi army would be working to keep the peace. And the US would hav as few as 5000 troops in the country. Slide show at www.nsarchive.org --NYT A10
--“We need to tell all these defense contractors that the time for this Iraqi gravy train, with their obscene profits, is over.” Congressman Duncan (R.Tenn.) NYT A10
—Sunni group takes responsibility for car bomb which kills 11 in Shiite Iran.—NYT A16
--Canada set to allow expiration of 2 broad antiterrorism laws; second thoughts on certain detentions and compelled testimony. NYT A16
--…according to an article in The Washington Post this week, at least some of the [new US] troops will be sent out in Humvees not yet equipped with FRAG Cit 5 armor [an advanced version designed to reduce deaths from roadside bombs, which now account for about 70% of US casulaties in Iraq]—NYT, A26
--[Around the world] China is offering cheaper rates, faster approval and fewer questions [for foreign aid loans]. What’s behind this sudden Chinese drive to do good around the world? The three short answers are money, international politics, and access to raw materials. NYT A27.
--The US and Britain ranked at the bottom of a UN survey of child welfare in 2 wealthy countries that assessed everything from infant mortality to whether children ate dinner with their parents or were bullied at school. The Netherlands, followed by Sweden, Denmark and Finland, finished at the top… AP (SBT A4)
Feb. 14, 2007. The number of waivers granted to Army recruits with criminal backgrounds has grown to about 65% in the last 3 years, increasing to 8129 from 4918 in 2003, DoD records show. NYT, A1
--2004: The military is founded on the ideals of patriotism, defense of the nation, and loyalty to an abstract set of values called the “American way of life.” Most of its members, however, are motivated by defense-establishment careerism, the possibility of using the military as a way out of racial and economic ghettoes, and a fascination, often media-inspired, with military technology…. Almost none enlist primarily out of patriotic or public-service motives…. Crime and racism are ubiquitous in the military C. Johnson, THE SORROWS OF EMPIRE, p. 106
COULMIER:This is outright defeatism
At this very moment our soldiers are laying down their lives
For the freedom of the world and for our freedom(MARAT/SADE,1964)
Feb. 14, 2007—US Trade deficit widened to record high in 2006—WSJ, A2
--Treas. Sec. Paulson said he is seeking quick action from Beijing in opening Chinese financial markets to foreign firms, employing cleaner Western environmental services, enforcing patents and copyright protections and creating domestic pension and health-care benefits…Mr. Paulson’s initial pick to lead the China talks quit just a month after coming aboard….Chinese law restricts foreign ownership of banks, insurance companies, asset managers and law firms… --WSJ A13
--China’s central bank sits on a hoard of $1.07 trillion in foreign currencies and securities, making it one of the biggest investors in the world. Now officials have agreed that the traditional approach to managing this massive rainy-day fund---keeping it safely invested in bonds issued by US and European governments—is out of date. Following the lead of countries like Singapore, South Korea and Norway, China is starting to look at new ways of managing its investments. …Even a slight shift of this type could have a significant impact on US markets. China has been long one of the biggest buyers of US Treasury notes making it in effect a major lender to the US government. China’s buying has helped keep interest rates low in the US –WSJ C1
--An Alabama state law banning the distribution of sexual devices [designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human gential organs] is constitutional because the preservation of public morality provides a rational basis for the statute, says the US Ct of Appeals, 11th Circuit, on Feb. 14 [sic]--National Law Journal 2-26-07
Feb. 13, 2007--China is alarmed about severe typhoons and droughts it is experiencing, eroding
reluctance to curb its greenhouse gas emissions.--WSJ, A1
--Feb. 9, 2007. –PRIORITIES: Bush’s 2008 budget proposal aims to spend $25 million for assessing vulnerabilities of thousands of hazardous facilities to terrorist attack. It calls for $53.6 million to protect 2008 presidential candidates.—A4
-- “It’s not like we have some crisis,” says Mark LaNeve, GM’s head of North American sales and marketing. GM has more than one million unsold cars in the pipeline. By contrast, Toyota Motor Co. has 320.282.—WSJ A8.
--Latest reports shows climate pessimists were climate realists.—WSJ, B1.
--Feb. 8, 2007—Army says it will withhold $19.6 Million from Halliburton, citing potential contract breach. NYT, A8
--Many federal employees have outright refused repeated requests that they go to Iraq, while others have demanded that they be assigned only to Baghdad and not outside the more secure Green Zone. NYT, A9
--El Paso Corporation, the largest American natural gas pipeline operator, agreed Wednesday to pay the federal government $7.73 million to settle allegations of involvement for illegal payments under the oil-for-food program run by the United Nations in Iraq --A9
Feb.. 6, 2007 NEW YORK (Reuters) - January's run of inconclusive economic data has provided foreign investors little impetus to ratchet up their purchases of U.S. Treasury debt as it left too many doubts about the direction of U.S. interest rates....Analysts said the uncertain rate outlook and the broad decline in bond prices since early December may leave foreign investors thinking twice about jumping into the refunding. Foreign interest in new debt is showing signs of waning. In the last notes sale about two weeks ago, indirect bids -- the best measure of foreign demand for Treasuries -- for five-year notes amounted to 21.80 percent of total bids, off sharply from the 48.8 percent in the prior auction at the end of 2006.
--BAGHDAD (Feb. 6) - Iraqi and American officials confirmed today that a sitting member of the Iraqi parliament is the same man who was convicted of planning bombing attacks on the American and French embassies and other sites in Kuwait in 1983. Five Americans were killed and 86 others were wounded in those attacks. AOL
--Feb. 6, 2007--WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush said on Tuesday he had approved plans to create a U.S. military command for Africa, a move that reflects increased U.S. strategic interest in the continent….Bush said he had asked Defense Secretary Robert Gates to get the new command, dubbed Africom, up and running by the end of September 2008. The United States would work closely with African allies to choose a location for the new command in Africa, he said. "This command will enable us to have a more effective and integrated approach than the current arrangement of dividing Africa between Central Command and European Command -- an outdated arrangement left over from the Cold War," Gates told the U.S. Senate's armed services committee.
Feb. 5-12, 2007 issue: “…Laura [Bush] plans to take a full month, between now and summer, away from Washington, D.C., and George, 60, to spend time alone at their ranch in Crawford, Texas, and reflect on whether she wants to remain married. … George and Laura’s volatile marriage reached the exploding point when she confronted him for not showing proper concern for her health following her treatment for skin cancer. “All the emotions they had kept in check for such a long time spilled out,” a friend revealed. “George stood up and said, ‘That’s it--I’m getting out of here!’ He stormed out of the White House, boarded a helicopter, and spent the night at Camp David. He came back the next day, but the damage was done. Laura had actually beaten George to the punch in walking out months before, taking refuge in a Washington hotel for one night last spring over a bitter fight over the president’s relationship with Rice. Later, the first lady had divorce papers drawn up, and showed them to George, pals say, telling him that if he didn’t shape up she would file. … George still doesn’t get it, [the GLOBE’s] source says GLOBE, 16
Feb. 5, 2007—China suspected of blocking access to Marxist texts online. --NYT
Feb. 5, 2005—HOW SIX YEARS OF WAR DIDN’T STRAIN ECONOMY; FOREIGN LENDING, LESSONS FROM LBJ; HOW LONG WILL IT LAST? What’s Mr. Bush’s secret? … perhaps the most significant: the willingness of foreigners to lend to the US, which finances the budget deficit without pushing up interest rates at a time when American’s don’t save very much… interest rates haven’t risen as much, because foreigners, particularly in Asia, are eager to lend to the US economy at fairly low rates. The economy as a whole is a heavy borrower from the rest of the world. In fact, the US government is particularly dependent on the willingness of foreigners to lend it money. As of November 2006, foreigners owned about $2.2 trillion of US securities—or about 52% of the public debt not held by the US government, compared with about 20% in the early 1909s. (The total US debt, which includes what the government owes itself, is about $8.7 trillion.) … “So far it’s not a problem because foreigners are willing to lend, but you’ve got to wonder what happens when the rest of the world says, ‘We’re tired of taking paper that loses value quickly,’” says Mr. Chinn [a University of Wisconsin economist] WSJ, A1, A13
Ibid: Some academic economists are beginning to gauge what the sums spent on Iraq could have financed—a down payment on Social Security for instance. Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz predicts Iraq will cost at least $1 trillion, assuming troops are withdrawn by 2010 [sic]. “Half that sum would have put Social Security on a firm grounding for the next 75 years,” he wrote last year in a paper. “If we spent even a small fraction of the remainder on education and research, it is likely our economy would be in a far stronger position.”
Feb. 2, 2007-- RUDE CHINESE: Chinese official publishes rebuke of Bush. NYT, A6, 2-2-07
DIVERSITY AND RACE AS A CULTURAL CONSTRUCT: American blacks argue
about whether Barack Obama is Black. NYT, A1, 2-2-07
USA PUISSANCE: Pact with Iran on gas sales is possible, Putin says NYT, A8, 2-2-07
USA PUISSANCE: Iran leader calls nuclear sanctions ineffective NYT, A8, 2-2-07
USA PUISSANCE: Venezuela’s Chavez says Bush should be tried for war crimes and is
unfit to manage “even a Little League baseball team” NYT, A9, 2-2-07
RERUN: US says Iran meddles in Iraq but it delaying release of data NYT, A11, 2-2-07
RERUN: US Reconfigures the way casualty totals are given NYT, A17, 2-2-07
BETTER LATE THAN NEVER: Florida shifting to voter system with paper trail , A1, 2-2-07
Feb.1, 2007—A report [from US auditor] said tens of millions of dollars in Iraq aid were wasted [through fraud, violence and corruption]. WSJ, A1
--Kissinger and Albright urged Bush to … develop a comprehensive strategy for [Iraqi] area.. WSJ, A1 [don’t hold your breath, kids]
--Boston faced gridlock as at least nine suspicious packages were found in the city [part of an ad stunt] WSJ A1
--Paulson laid out a series of economic changes he expect Beijing to begin before Bush leaves office. WSJA1 [don’t hold your breath, kids]
--German Court Challenges CIA over Abduction, NYT A1
--Mr. Bush’s call [in a Wall Street speech] for corporations to hold executives more accountable by tying their pay to company performance was met with silence, NYT A1 [don’t hold your breath, kids]
--France tells US to sign climate pacts or face tax NYT A10
ZIGGY STARDUST; or why CHINA ANNOYS
Feb. 1, 2007--WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China's test of an anti-satellite weapon last month underscores U.S. frustration in efforts to forge reliable communications with the secretive Chinese military, a senior Pentagon official said on Thursday.
Richard Lawless, deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs, said the missile launch that destroyed an aging Chinese weather satellite was a "quite unpleasant development" after years of U.S. efforts to boost dialogue with China's military leaders.
"The fact that the ASAT test took place in the absence of a strong dialogue is all the more concerning," he told the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a body that advises the U.S. Congress on policy.
On January 11, China used a ground-based ballistic missile to knock out the satellite about 537 miles above Earth, scattering dangerous debris that could damage other satellites for years
One unusual aspect of American militarism in the 21st century is that the government has elaborate plans to exert world dominance not merely through a vast military machine on this planet [over 725 bases outside USA] but through the control of space. [79] … In a particularly audacious sign of our military unilateralism, the Air Force Space Command and the National Reconnaissance Office are now talking openly about denying the use of space for intelligence purposes to any other nation at any time—not just to adversaries but also to allies. In April 2003, at the National Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, air force secretary James Roche said, “If allies don’t like the new paradigm of space dominance, they’ll just have to learn to accept it.” [311] Chalmers Johnson, SORROWS OF EMPIRE (2004)
--Jan. 30, 2007—Bush said the US “will respond firmly” if Iran escalates military action in Iraq but said he doesn’t plan to invade”—WSJ, A1
--Jan. 30,2007—Europe resists US on curbing ties with Iran.—NYT, A1
--Jan. 30, 2007 For the past few months, anyone who consulted the Veterans Affairs Department's Web site to learn how many American troops had been wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan would have found this number: 50,508. But on Jan. 10, without explanation, the figure plummeted to 21,649. Which number is correct/ The answer depends on a larger question of the definition of wounded.--NYT,A17
--Jan. 30, 2007 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. scientists felt pressured to tailor their writings on global warming to fit the Bush administration's skepticism, in some cases at the behest of an ex-oil industry lobbyist, a congressional committee heard on Tuesday. "Our investigations found high-quality science struggling to get out," Francesca Grifo of the watchdog group Union of Concerned Scientists told members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
A survey by the group found that 150 climate scientists personally experienced political interference in the past five years, for a total of at least 435 incidents.
January 29, 2007. I would never, ever make a change in a United States Attorney position for political reasons, or if it would in any way jeopardize an ongoing serious investigation.—AG Gonzales [probably under oath] before the Senate Judiciary Committee. NEW YORKER, 4-2-2007, p. 25
--Jan. 29, 2007—Iranian reveals plan to expand role inside Iraq.--NYT, A1.
BRUSSELS, Jan. 26 — America’s European allies remained noncommittal about sending additional troops to Afghanistan today, even as the Bush administration sought to inject new energy into the
NATO mission against the
Taliban by offering more American soldiers and money.
Jan 25, 2007--When it comes to managing its citizens' health care, the US is a model of inefficiency. Recently released figures ... show that in 2005, the US health-care tab came to 16% of gross domestic product, more than any other country. France spends 10.5% of its GDP on health care ... while Japan spends 8%.
Americans don't seem to be getting much for the money. In both France and Japan, the average life expectancy is higher than in the US, and the infant mortality rate is lower....
This is a drag on US companies, raising their costs, pulling money out of consumer products, and giving overseas firms a competitive edge. ...
[Bank of America strategist Joseph Quinlan says that ] bringing health care spending down to the same percentage of GDP as in France, for instance, could arugably free up $600 billion a year.--WSJ, C1
Jan. 24, I don't know how many United States senators believe we have a coherent strategy in Iraq. I don't think we've ever had a coherent strategy. In fact, I would even challenge the administration today to show us the plan that the president talked about the other night. There is no plan. I happen to know Pentagon planners were on their way to the Central Com over the weekend. They haven't even Team B'd this plan. . –Sen. Hagel (R,Neb)WSJ, Jan. 26
Jan. 23, 2007, Gen. David Petraeus [Bush’s new choice for Iraq commander]
The situation in Iraq has deteriorated significantly since the bombing this past February of the Al-Askari mosque in Samarra, the third-holiest Shi’a Islamic shrine.
The increase in the level of violence since then, fueled by the insurgent and sectarian fighting that spiraled in the wake of the bombing, has made progress in Iraq very difficult and created particularly challenging dynamics in the capital city of Baghdad. …
The escalation of violence in 2006 undermined the coalition strategy and raised the prospect of a failed Iraqi state, an outcome that would be in no group’s interest save that of certain extremist organizations and perhaps states in the region that wish Iraq and the United States ill. In truth, no one can predict the impact of a failed Iraq on regional stability, the international economy, the global war on terror, America’s standing in the world and the lives of the Iraqi people.
In response to the deterioration of the situation in Iraq, a new way ahead was developed and announced earlier this month. With implementation of this approach, the mission of Multinational Force Iraq will be modified, making security of the population, particularly in Baghdad, and in partnership with Iraqi forces, the focus of the military effort.
Jan. 23, 2007, Kaiser George II, State of the Union--A thinking enemy watched all these scenes, adjusted their tactics, and in 2006 they struck back. … The result was a tragic escalation of sectarian rage and reprisal that continues to this day.
Jan. 23—This war is more than a clash of arms—it is a decisive ideological struggle, and the security of our nation is in the balance.—Kaiser Bush II, State of the Union
--Jan 22, 2007--NEW YORKER: On November 15 [2006] Gen. John P. Abizaid, the commander of all American military forces in the Middle East, testified publicly to Congress that he did not see a need for more American troops in Iraq. He apparently changed his mind later; in any event, he announced his retirement just before Christmas. Around the same time, the Washington Post reported that the Joint Chiefs of Staff unanimously opposed sending 15,000 or more troops to Iaq. There is no indication that the chiefs have abandoned their doubts since then; they seem only to have agreed to follow orders. Gates told Congress late last week that the plan for more troops had originated with commanders in Iraq. But a short time later the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Peter Pace, testified that the commanders had requested considerably fewer troops than Pres. Bush ultimately decided to send. …Bush has appointed Lt.Gen. Raymond T. Odierno to implement the new approach as the leader of day-to-day combat operations in Iraq. Odierno commanded the 4th Infantry Division in Iraq during 2003 and 2004; he oversaw the capture of Saddam Hussein. He also has a record of either misreading the war or glossing over its difficulties. Odierno said that in the summer of 2003 that the Sunnis were “not close to guerilla warfare” and that the enemy had no will to fight. Early in 2004, he declared at a news conference that the insurgents he was facing were a “fractured, sporadic threat” who had been reduced to just a “handful of cells.” He said, “We see constant improvement. And so it is getting better.”
--Jan. 22, 2007—After nearly four years of war in Iraq, the Pentagon’s effort to protect its troops against roadside bombs is in disarray, with soldiers and Marines having to swap access to scarce armored vehicles and the military unsure whether it has the money or industrial capacity to produce the safe vehicles it says the troops need. ...The Army acknowledged last week, for example, that it is still 22 % short of the armored Humvees it needs in Iraq despite heated criticism in 2004 and 2005 over the lack of armored vehicles. Army officials said it will be another r 8 months before that gap can be filled.—Baltimore Sun
Jan 21, 2007-- But that's all W.M.D under the bridge. The most important lies to watch for now are the new ones being reiterated daily by the administration's top brass, from Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney on down. You know fiasco awaits America when everyone in the White House is reading in unison from the same fictional script, as they did back in the day when "mushroom clouds" and "uranium from Africa" were the daily drumbeat. –FRANK RICH
--CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday [Jan 21] called the U.S. secretary of state "my little girl" and told Washington to "go to hell" after it questioned his plan to seek special powers to legislate by decree.
--Jan. 20, 2007—Jessica Heyman’s breakfast in Paris last month was nothing out of the ordinary: a modest repast of eggs, coffee and a side salad with her husband … the bill was memorable—46 euros, or about $60, at the current exchange rate. Five years ago, when the dollar was strong, the same bill would have amounted to $42. NYT, A1
--I don’t think [GWBush] reads like he says he does. Every time he’s read something he tells you about it.” –Senator Jay Rockefeller, NYT, A27
--Jan. 19--Flexing muscle, China destroys satellite in test; A surprise to the US, which opposed space weapons treaties. NYT, A1,A11
--Jan. 19, 2007—[Fed Reserve Chair] warned that rising health-care and Social Security spending could result in higher debt and interest payments and en eventual financial crisis.—WSJ.A1 col.1
--The Pentagon sees 2007 Iraq war costs of $8.4 billion a month.—WSJ, A1, col 2
Jan 18--The federal government's biggest program to help people rebuild after natural disasters is on the verge of running out of money because of budgeting problems at the agency that runs it, the Small Business Administration. ... The current money shortage is related to what agency officials concede was an unusual decision in early 2005 not to ask Congress for any money to pay for running the disaster program in the 2006 fiscal year... NYT A1
Jan. 17, 2007: --Toyota is becoming the first foreign brand to compete in stock-car racings’ top series since the 1950s, raising concerns around Nascar. NYT A1
--A top Interior Dept. official was told nearly 3 years ago about a legal blunder that allowed drilling companies to avoid billions of dollars in payments for oil and gas pumped from publicly owned waters, a report by the departments’ chief independent investigator has found. NYT A1
--Annual costs for: Iraq war, $200B; universal health care for people w/out it, $100B; universal pre-school, $35B; 9/11 recommendations, $10B; cancer research, $6B; immunizations for world’s children, $0.6B.—NYT C8
--“Algeria was a thoroughly bloodthirsty war that ended horribly and cost the lives of about 20,000 Frenchmen and a million Algerians. There was a terrible civil war afterwards, leading up to almost the present day, in which 100,000 Algerians died. DeGaulle ended up giving literally everything away and left without his pants.”—Alistair Horne, author of A Savage War of Peace, NYT A23.
Jan 16: Lehrer: If [the war in Iraq] is that important … why haven’t you as President of the United States asked more Americans and American interests to sacrifice?
Bush: I think a lot of people are in this fight. They sacrifice peace of mind when they see the terrible images of violence on TV every night.—PBS
Jan 15, 2007—Just days after President Bush unveiled his new war plan for Iraq, the heart of the effort—a major push to secure the capital—faces some of its fiercest resistance form the very people it depends on for success: Iraqi government officials. NYT,A1
--Jan 14, 2007—The Pentagon has been using a little-known power to obtain banking and credit records of hundreds of Americans and others suspected of terrorism or espionage inside the United States, part of an aggressive expansion by the military into domestic intelligence gathering. NYT A1
--Jan 13-14, 2007—I had the odd and wholly unexpected experience of feeling supportive of a troop increase until I saw the president’s speech arguing for it.—Peggy Noonan, WSJ P10.
--Jan 13, 2007—The senior Pentagon official in charge of military detainees suspected of terrorism said in an interview this week that he was dismayed that lawyers at many of the nation’s top firms were representing prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and that the firms’ corporate clients should consider ending their business ties. NYT A1
Jan 11, 2007--USA--In a sense, it is a predictable path for Mr. Bush. This, after all, is the same president who lost the popular vote in 2000, was installed in the White House by a 5-to-4 vote of the Supreme Court and then governed as if he had won by a landslide. And this is the same president who, after winning re-election in 2004, famously told reporters that he had “earned capital in the campaign, political capital, and now I intend to spend it.” NYT
Jan 11—NOLA--Frightened citizens now see their city as a stalking ground, roamed with impunity by teenagers with handguns — an image that may not be far off the mark, experts here say. There are a variety of reasons for the descent toward chaos. An automobile-bound police department is reluctant to walk the streets and interact with the city’s residents. It is at war with the district attorney’s office, which is prosecuting seven officers for a deadly shooting soon after Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005. Judges in the city’s courts regularly rule in favor of criminals. Completing the grim picture is an already fragile social structure in the city’s poorest wards that has been all but destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Moving back to town, in many cases, are “kids with guns, and without parents,” said Mr. Scharf, who predicted a year ago that the city was in for a tidal wave of violence. The police, feared and hated by the city’s poor, get no cooperation from them in solving crimes. “Stop that snitchin!” is the inscription on the T-shirt of a man waiting for a bus on Canal Street. In killing after killing, police officials have begged for witnesses to step up, to no avail. The result is an unwitting carrying out of the classic Maoist strategy of guerilla insurgency: criminals swim like fish in the surrounding sea, protected by a population that finds no reason to give them up, and is often afraid to. Frustrated, police officers have been known to lash out at residents. Disturbing police brutality cases — officers beating up, or even shooting, random African-American men — are now competing for headlines with the latest killings. Infuriating the police agency he must work with, Eddie Jordan, the district attorney, referred to the police as “rabid dogs” after he indicted seven of them last month in the shooting death of two men after Hurricane Katrina. In this violent city, the Police Department’s arrests are usually not for crimes of violence at all, but for drugs. Such arrests constitute 65 percent of the city’s total, twice the national average, according to a study by the city’s independent Metropolitan Crime Commission. And the problems only continue once an arrest is made. In 2003-4, only 7 percent of those arrested were sentenced to prison, only 5 percent of all convictions were for violent offenses, and only 12 percent of homicide arrests resulted in jail, the study found. –NYT
Jan 11—NOLA—“There is not much profit in developing low-income housing”—NYT OpEd
Jan 11—Venezuala—“I swear by Christ---the greatest socialist --in history.”—Chavez, taking oath of office--SBT
Jan 11—Nicaragua—Daniel Ortega sworn in as president.—SBT
Jan 9/10—Homeland Security Dudette states that capture of Osama bin Laden constitutes a “success that hasn’t occurred yet”
Jan. 7, 2007--… The Army used the wrong database [Gen. Richard Cody, the Army’s vice chief of staff] said, when it generated a mass mailing of letters between Christmas and New Year’s Day to more than 5,100 Army officers who recently had left the service.
Included were letters to 75 officers killed in action----more than one-third of all Army officers who have died in Iraq since the war began---and 200 more wounded in action.
The letters encourage the officers to consider returning to duty. --AP
Jan. 5, 2007--University of Alabama guarantees Nick Saban $32M over eight years regardless of record achieved, causing even one former UofA Trustee to express outrage--WSJ--B4
--Washington is taking a tougher line on foreign acquisitions of US assets, as evidenced by
the Lucent-Alcatel deal WSJ A1
--Peter Beinart, Senior Fellow at Council of Foreign Relations, expresses concern over George II’s outsourcing of US “responsibilities”—Israel in Lebanon, NATO in Afghanistan, Ethiopia in Somalia, China in North Korea… “Mr. Beinart sees all these difficulties as the hidden costs of the Iraq war.” WSJ, B4
--The nuclear weapons chief was fired after an embarrassing serious of security lapses at Los Alamos and elsewhere, including the discovery of computer drives containing classified data at a meth dealer's trailer. --WSJ, A1
--Adm. McConnell's appointment [to Office of Director of National Intelligence] will place current and retired military officials in charge of all of Washington's principal spy branches, including the CIA, the NSA, and the Defense Intelligence Agency. . . . Senior counterterrorism official from State and CIA observes "The result could be a focus on supporting wars, rather than longer-term analysis." WSJ A4
Dec. 30-31, 2006--Canadian scientists said satellite photos show an ice shelf bigger than Manhattan has broken off Ellesmere Island, likely due to global warming. WSJ A1
--China aims to develop its military to project power far from home to further its increasingly global interests, a strategy document says. WSJ A1
--[Ford] granted an interview with Bob Woodward in July 2004, to be released posthumously, in which he shared his views. Mr. Woodward reports Ford told him he would not have gone to war in Iraq based on the public information available at the time.
“I don’t think I would have ordered the Iraq war. I would have maximized our effort through sanctions, through restrictions, whatever, to find another answer.” This is the authentic voice of the American foreign-policy establishment, and it remind me, among other things, that establishments are not all bad. They rise for a reason. One is an ability to apprehend reality.” Peggy Noonan, WSJ, P10
Dec. 27, 2006—Polar bears should be listed as a threatened species because of melting Arctic ice tied to global warming, Interior Secterary Kempthorne said. Norway invited US leaders to see thawing in the Arctic for themselves. WSJ, A1
--Kemthorne said that although his decision to seek protection for polar bears acknowledged the melting of th Arctic ice, his idepartment was not taking a position on why the ice was melting or what to do about it. NYT, A16
Dec. 20, 2006—President wants to increase size of Armed Forces, NYT A1
Dec. 17, 2006—“[Imperial Life in the Emerald City] tells the bureaucratic story of Iraq’s Year 1, the year after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, when the United States was the legal occupying power and responsible for the country’s administration. The primary mechanism for that work was the Coalition Provisional Authority, headquartered in the Green Zone . . . the CPA’s recruitment policy would have shamed Tammany Hall. . . . To determine their suitability for positions in Iraq, some prospective employees were asked their views on Roe v. Wade…. “ NYTBR, 13
Dec. 16,2006—Part of the frustration among business groups and lawmakers is that [Treasury secretary] Paulson, by the mere fact that he was accompanied by several cabinet members and [Fed Board Chairman] Bernanke, may have raised expectations that he would bring home more concrete results. Instead, the meeting [in China] wound up Friday with an agreement to set up several study groups and other pledges, but only atmospherics to suggest that China might eventually stop undervaluing its currency to promote exports.-- NYT, B4
--On the professional side, I would not be where I am today but for the confidence Don [Rumsfeld] first placed in me those many years ago.”—VP Cheney, NYT, A31
Dec. 12, 2006--Intimidated by George The Second's manly flex of military muscle, a
chastened Iran convenes an international Study Group to confirm whether
or not the Holocaust happened.
--Dec. 12. NEW YORK (Reuters) - High levels of debt, the war in Iraq and shifting demographics will bring about "the end of the American era," a hedge fund manager said on Tuesday.Peter Siris, who runs U.S. hedge fund Guerrilla Capital Management and Hua-Mei 21st Century, a fund specializing in emerging Chinese companies, said young Americans should study Chinese because fading U.S. influence in the world will require them to invest more money in foreign firms, especially in the Far East. "I'd like to come in and be bullish about the United States, but I'm not," Siris told said the Reuters Investment Outlook 2007 Summit.
--Dec. 12 NEW YORK (Reuters) - It's only a matter of time before the beleaguered U.S. dollar loses its status as the world's reserve currency and medium of exchange, U.S. fund manager and author Jim Rogers told Reuters in an interview. "The dollar is a terribly flawed currency," said Rogers, who co-founded the Quantum hedge fund with billionaire investor George Soros in the 1970s. He urged investors to switch to the Brazilian real and Chinese yuan instead. "You should hold as few dollars as possible. The dollar's decline would go on for years to come," he added.
Dec. 11, 2006—Islamic militants are using a recent peace deal with the government to consolidate their hold in northern Pakistan, vastly expanding their training of suicide bombers and other recruits and fortifying alliances with Al Qaeda and foreign fighters, diplomats and intelligence officials from several nations say. The result, they say, is virtually a Taliban mini-state.—NYT,A1
--on a happier front, evil doer Augusto Pinochet has died, albeit w/ insufficient suffering
WASHINGTON, Dec. 11 — President Bush will wait until after the holidays to speak to the nation about a new strategy in Iraq, a spokesman for the
National Security Council said today.
--Dec. 11, 2006. . . an article in Saturday’s New York Times describes how the Coast Guard has run a $17 billion modernization program: “Instead of managing the project itself, the Coast Guard hired Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, two of the nation’s largest military contractors, to plan, supervise and deliver the new vessels and helicopters.” The result? Expensive ships that aren’t seaworthy. . .
In Afghanistan, the job of training a new police force was outsourced to DynCorp International, a private contractor, under very loose supervision: when conducting a recent review, auditors couldn’t even find a copy of DynCorop’s contract to see what I called for. And $1.1. billion later, Afghanistan still doesn’t have an effective police training program.
In July 2004, Government Executive magazine published an article titled “Outsourcing Iraq,” documenting how the US occupation authorities had transferred responsibility for reconstruction to private contractors, with hardly any oversight. “The only plan,” it said, “appears to have been to let the private sector manage nation-building, mostly on their own.” --Krugman, 12-11-06 NYT, A29
Dec. 10,2006—[The Iraq Study Group report] had a feel-good title, “The Way Forward,” unfortunately chosen as well by Ford Motor to promote its last-ditch plan to stave off bankruptcy.—Frank Rich, NYT, WK12.
--Iran Ties Roles in Iraq Talks to US Exit. NYT, 18.
--The American era is now over. –Martin Jacques, NYT, WK 5.
Dec. 9—Ex-war supporter Sen. Smith (R.,Ore) called current [Iraq] tactics “absurd,” possibly “criminal.” WSJ, A1
--China’s Communist [sic] Party has a new agenda: it is encouraging people to discuss what it means to be a major world power and has largely stopped denying that China intends to become one soon. . . Until recently China’s rising power remained a delicate topic, and largely unspoken, inside China. Beijing has long followed a dictim laid down by Deng Xiaoping, the paramount leader who died in 1997: “ta guang yang hui,” literally to hide its ambitions and disguise its claws. . . . China this year promised to provide well over $10 billion in low-interest loans and debt relief to Asia, African and Latin American countries over the next two years. It invited 48 African countries to Beijing last month to a conference aimed at promoting closer cooperation and trade. Beijing agreed to send 1,000 peacekeepers to Lebanon, its first such action in the Middle East. It has sought to become a more substantial player in a region where the United States traditionally olds far more sway. NYT, A1, A6
Dec. 8--CAIRO, Egypt (Dec. 8) - Private Saudi citizens are giving millions of dollars to Sunni insurgents in Iraq and much of the money is used to buy weapons, including shoulder fired anti-aircraft missiles, according to key Iraqi officials and others familiar with the flow of cash.
–For some members of the Iraq Study Group, the turning point came during four days in Baghdad in September. They found the trip so harrowing, they said, that they wondered if they could afford to wait to speak out about the disaster in Iraq. . . . “You understand this is real—this is a state of siege,” said Edward P. Djerejian . . . who helped draft the Iraq Study Group report . . . “The trip to Baghdad really solidified the perception for all of us.”NYT A14
--Mr. Baker . . . has also made little secret in private that he regards the current administration as a bunch of diplomatic go-cart racers, more interested in speed than strategy and prone to ruinous crashes. At his news conference . . . Mr. Bush bathed the report in faint praise, though he slipped at one point and referred to Mr. Baker as the sitting secretary of state. NYT A16
--WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Friday dismissed former Secretary of State James Baker's appeal that his Iraq recommendations be largely adopted as a whole and said President George W. Bush was considering various proposals for a change in course.
Dec. 7.—Pearl Harbor Day newspapers report:
--Baker panel says that Iraq that is going badly and may be beyond fixing, and that US troops should leave Iraq by March 2008. “What was striking was the report’s blunt tone … and the harshness of its criticism of the administration’s performance and officials’ efforts to conceal how bad the situation had become.” WSJ, A1.
--FEMA has “recouped little of the $1 billion fraudulent claims that were identified earlier” Ibid
--A federal voting panel, after balking initially, in the end endorsed machines whose results can be verified with paper receipts or other means ibid
--Poverty has moved to the suburbs . . . as the number of poor there,12 million, passed US cities for the first time in 2005 ibid
--Vice President’s lesbian daughter announces she is pregnant
--US Military unable to remove crowds of pigeons from its recruiting center in Times Square NYT C18
--WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Dubai Ports World, the Arab-owned firm whose purchase of American port facilities caused a U.S. political uproar, will join a program aimed at stopping nuclear weapons being smuggled into the United States, sources familiar with the agreement said on Thursday
Dec. 6, 2006, WSJ, p. 1: Duly chastised by USA successes in Iraq, Iran calls on Arab countries to eject US bases and joint it in a regional security pact, while scheduling a conference next week to determine whether or not the holocaust took place.
--NYT A17—Hackers take down USA Naval War College’s computer network for more than two weeks
Dec. 4--(Reuters) - The U.S. government is on its way to brokering about $20 billion in arms sales in the fiscal year that began October 1, steady with last year's near-record total, the Pentagon official responsible for such sales said on Monday
Dec. 1, 2001--Foreigners now hold a record 52% of the USA government's $ trillioin in outside
debt, up from a quarter in 1995. USA TODAY, editorial page
Dec. 4, 2006--Long live the socialist revolution! Destiny has been written," Chavez shouted to thousands of flag-waving supporters wearing red shirts and braving a pouring rain. That new era has begun," he said, raising a hand in the air. "We have shown that Venezuela is red! ... No one should fear socialism ... Socialism is human. Socialism is love," Chavez said. "Down with imperialism! We need a new world!" He said his victory was a blow to President Bush, whose government he calls dangerously imperialistic. "It's another defeat for the devil, who tries to dominate the world," Chavez said. "Down with imperialism! We need a new world!"
Nov 30, 2006--while flying on his way to the Levant, George II receives a phone call informing
him that his puppet has cancelled his dinner date with him.
Nov. 29, 2006 --US Troops Kill 5 girls [inlcuding at least one baby] in assault on insurgents, A6
p. A27:
----"the US military is no longer able to defeat a bloody insurgency in western
Iraq or counter al Qaeda's rising popularity there"--classified Marine intelligence report
--Never mind that W. dropped the ball on Osama, and that his own commanders
have estimated that Al Qaeda forces represent only a fraction of the foe in Iraq.
Al Qaeda wasn't even in Iraq until the Bush invasion.--Maureen Dowd
--... it may be necessary to press [Maliki] to reconfigure his parliamentary bloc,
a step the USA could support by providing 'monetary support to moderate groups' and by sending thousands of additional American troops into Baghdad to make up for what the
document suggests is current shortage of Iraqi forces.--NYT summary of classified
assessment by national security adviser Stephen Hadley
--Just what the election said Americans want: More kids at risk in Baghdad.(W.'s kids, of
course, are running their own risks, partying their way through Argentina)--Maureen Dowd
WASHINGTON (Nov. 29, 2006) - The Bush administration wants North Korea's attention, so like a scolding parent it's trying to make it tougher for that country's eccentric leader to buy iPods, plasma televisions and Segway electric scooters.
Nov. 28, 2006 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Over White House objections, The New York Times and other U.S. news outlets have adopted the term "civil war" for the fighting in Iraq, reflecting a growing consensus that sectarian violence has engulfed the country. After NBC News' widely publicized decision on Monday to brand the conflict a civil war, several prominent newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times, pointed to their use of the phrase.
Nov. 26, 2006—War in Iraq lasts longer than US involvement in World War Two.
Nov. 25, 2006—dollar drops sharply against other major currencies, highlighting concerns about softness in the USA economy. Analysts said the drop reflected particular anxiety over USA’s huge trade surplus with China. (NYT)
Nov. 22, 2006—London based columnist reports BBC broadcast of al-Qaida infiltrator Omar Nasiri (a pseydonym) who states that al-Qaida deliberately fed false information to USA to encourage it to invade Iraq.
Nov. 22, 2006—end of marriage or men? USA reports that 37% of all births are now out of wedlock, and the teenage births are declining, while those for single women in their 20s is increasing. (Conservative Christians call on gays for assistance?)
Nov. 22, 2006--France censors USA film SAW III for being too violent
Nov. 20, 2006—Anti-terrorist data base used by USA Defense Dept. includes intelligence on antiwar planning meetings held at churches, libraries, college campuses, etc.
Nov. 19, 2006. Victory in Iraq is not possible—Henry Kissinger, BBC
-Nov. 17, 2006 –Seemed Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had barely left his Oval Office firing ceremony when the Pentagon website popped up with a new feature titled “Six Years of Accomplishment” with Rummy. First and foremost were his accomplishments in the “war on terror,” where overall, military efforts “liberated 50 million people in Afghanistan an Iraq. More specifically, they’ve liberated 31 million Afghans from Taliban control and destroyed Al-Qaeda sanctuary.” And they’ve “liberated 27 million Iraqis from a brutal dictatorship and turned over sovereignty of the country to an Iraqi government.” Math, apparently, is not a strong point. Somewhere it seems they lost—or gained—8 million people. WASHINGTON POST,A23
11-14-2006--France proposes tax on imports from nations who do not sign Kyoto Treaty--NYT,
—Lawsuit filed in Germany to investigate Don Rumsfeld and Alberto Gonzales for war crimes.
Nov. 12, 2006—NYT,WK4: “Michele Bachmann is another Republican with a catalogue of YouTube clips, and they weren’t posted by her. An opposition blogger put up videos if Ms. Bachmann addressing a church group, in which she discusses how she submits to her husband’s wishes and calls herself “hot” for Jesus Christ. They may have helped: she won her election in Minnesota’s Sixth Congressional District by about 8 percentage points.”
Nov. 10, 2006----UN rates top nations for living: Norway, Iceland, Australia, Ireland, and Sweden make top five. Then Canada and Japan. And finally, at Number Eight, the
best country in the world,the USA....
--the dollar hit a new 2 1/2 month low against the euro and an 18 month low against the sterling as a top official said that China's plan for diversifying its $1 trillion reserve included a review of its currency holdings. --Reuters
Nov. 8, 2006—George II announces resignation of Donald Rumsfeld
Nov. 7, 2006. oops
Nov. 6, 2006. Rumsfeld completes memo to George II, stating that “The situation in Iraq has been evolving, and U.S. forces have adjusted, over time, from major combat operations to counterterrorism, to counterinsurgency, to dealing with death squads and sectarian violence. In my view it is time for a major adjustment. Clearly, what U.S. forces are currently doing in Iraq is not working well enough or fast enough.”
11-2-06--“Iran has superseded [the US] as the most influential power in Iraq.” London Royal Institute of International Affairs –NYRB, 11-2-06, p. 59
Oct.26,2006: NYT, A26: The office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction “reviewed records covering $1.3 billion out of the $18.4 billion that Congress voted for Iraq reconstruction two years ago. Reported overhead costs ran from a low of 11 percent for several contracts awarded to Lucent to a high of 55 percent for, you guessed, it Halliburton subsidiary, KBR Inc. On similar projects in the United States, overhead is typically just a few percent. Given the difficult security environment in Iraq, overhead was expected to run closer to 10 percent.”
Oct. 25, 2006: San Diego Union Tribune quotes Wash.Post columnist Sebatian Mallaby: “Has there been a worse moment for American power since Ronald Reagan celebrated morning in America almost a quarter a century ago? I can’t think of one.”
Oct. 25, WSJ A1: “The cost of college is beyond reach for many due to soaring tuition and falling federal funding of Pell Grants, the College Board reports.”
Oct. 25, 2006: USAToday, A1: “It is going to take another 12 to 18 months or so till I believe the Iraqi security forces are completely capable of taking over responsibility for their own security.—Gen. George Casey, top Iraq commander (on 10-24-06)
Oct. 24, 2006. San Diego Union-Tribune reports that Kevin Tillman, who served in the same Army Ranger unit as his NFL player brother who was killed in Afghanistan, wrote in an online essay that “Somehow the more soldiers that die, the more legitimate the illegal invasion [of Iraq] becomes . . . Somehow, American leadership, whose only credit is lying to its people and illegally invading a nation, has been allowed to steal the courage, virtue and honor of its soldiers on the ground . . . Somehow back at home, support for the soldiers meant having a 5-year-old kindergartener scribble a picture with crayons and send it overseas or slapping stickers on cars or lobbying Congress for an extra pad in a helmet…”
Oct. 24. WSJ, A1: “Iran defied UN sanctions talk and started a second centrifuge cascade that could double its uranium-enriching capacity”
Oct. 24. WSJ, A1: Rice pressed China last week to drop objections to sanctions [against Sudan for Darfur] . . . China hosts a 48-nation Africa summit next month as it continues to cultivate markets as well as possible suppliers of energy resources.
Oct. 23, 2006. AP—“Iraq’s former finance minister alleged [on “60 Minutes’] that up to $800 million meant to equip the Iraqi army had been stolen from the government by former officials through fraudulent arms deals.”
Oct. 23. NYT: The White House announces that George II “was no longer using the phrase ‘stay the course’ when speaking about the Iraq war…”
Oct. 22, 2006. NYT, Sec. 3 p.5. Jacob Hacker’s The Great Risk Shift “is chock-full of details that . . . in regard to risks that in other countries are handled by government and that in this country were once met by employers—Americans must now go it alone.”
Oct 21, 2006—WSJ, p. A1: “Meanwhile, the UN said the war has made nearly one million refugees in Iraq out of a population of 16 million. It said the health ministry has stopped supplying casualty data”; ”Rice’s push for sanctions muscle [on North Korea] saw little progress”; ”Iran called Israeli leaders ‘terrorists’ for its threats to its nuclear work”
--NYT: For years, James A. Baker III was asked to explain why [George I], whom he served as secretary of state, did not oust Saddam Hussein in 1991 at the end of the Persian Gulf war. “Guess what?” Mr. Baker says nowadays. “Nobody asks me that any more” . . . It is well known that Mr. Baker is not a great fan of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.
Oct. 19, 2006.—“Campaigning in Montana, Sen. Burns said he believes the president has a plan to win in Iraq but is keeping it quiet.” --WSJ, 10-19-06, p A1
—International Red Cross expresses ‘concerns and questions” over whether new US anti-terror law complies with the Geneva Conventions on the conduct of war
--WSJ declares John Hopkins-led study concerning 655,000 “excess deaths” to be a “fraud”. pA18. At the very least no evidence has been uncovered to establish that any stem cell anywhere has been damaged.
--Top US military spokesman in Iraq Maj. Gen. Wm. B. Caldwell acknowledges that Operation Together Forward “had failed to reduce violence in the Iraqi capital and called the results ‘disheartening.’”
Oct. 18, 2006—NYT reports that USA spends $6200 per person for health care, generating a life expectancy of 78 years for those born in 2004. Stats for inferior nations: Switzerland, $4200, 81 years; France, $3300, 80 years; Canada, $3300, 80 years; Germany, $3300, 79 years; Sweden, $3000, 81 years; Japan, $2500, 82 years; Greece, $2300, 79 years.
Oct. 17, 2006.—WSJ announces that China’s holdings of foreign currencies and securities near the $1 trillion dollar mark. “Roughly 70% of the Chinese reserves are believed to be in US dollar assets,” keeping “demand for US Treasury notes high—and interest rates low. A change in that pattern could affect how much Americans pay for mortgage loans and other borrowings. Some in Washington and world markets fear that China might one day dump its holdings of dollar-based assets, setting off a tidal wave of sales that might swamp the US economy.” Emperor George II appoints Fook Mee Gud as piano teacher for Condoleza Rice, giving China full authority to dictate US relations with North Korea and Iran.
~Oct. 17, 2006—Emperor George II assures Diem—oops, I mean Khanh--oops, I mean Ky--oops, I mean Minh--oops, I mean Maliki—yes, I really really mean Maliki--that USA has no intentions of replacing him as Prime Figurehead in Iraq. Maliki later calls North Korea and Iran for advice on job security.
Oct. 16, 2006---Unable to consolidate the USA position in Iraq, Emperor George II adopts an unexpected but canny strategic move by announcing coast guard patrol boats will be armed with machine guns in all fives of the Great Lakes, protecting the vulnerable Midwest from amphibious Arabs, canoodling Canadians, and aggressive alewives.
Sept. 30, 2006—date on which $20,000,000 authorized by a 2006 defense bill for a daylong “celebration” of “success” in Iraq and Afghanistan extended to 2007
Aug. 30, 2006: Iraqi forces may be able to take over security in “12 to 18 months”—Gen. George Casey, top Iraq commander [: USAToday, A1, 10-25-06]
June 14, 2006—“I’ve just returned from Baghdad, and I was inspired to be able to visit the capital of a free and democratic Iraq . . . Operation Together Forward started this morning. This operation is a joint effort to restore security and rule of law to high-risk areas in the capital city.”—Emperor George II
June 2006: Death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi: number of daily attacks on US forces: 90 --Cordesman, Iraqi Force Develpment: Summer 2006 Update (CSIS,2006) p. 7
Jan. 2006—As we make progress and Iraqi forces increasingly take the load, we should be able to
further decrease troop levels. Kaiser George II, State of the Union
Sept. 2005. The only exit strategy for Iraq is victory, Henry Kissinger being quoted by Bob Woodward
July 27, 2005: A possibility of “fairly substantial [troop] reductions after these elections in the spring and summer.”—Gen. George Casey, top Iraq commander [: USAToday, A1, 10-25-06]
March 27, 2005: “assuming the political process continues to go positively . . . and the Iraqi army continues to progress . . . we should be able to take some fairly substantial [troop] reductions.—Gen. George Casey, top Iraq commander [USAToday, A1, 10-25-06]
Jan. 2005: Elections for Transitional Government; number of daily attacks on US forces: 61
Jan. 2005—The car bombers and assassins are not only fighting coalition forces, they are trying to destroy the hopes of Iraqis. Kaiser George II, State of the Union
Sept. 26, 2004---Iraqi leaders are stepping forward, leading their country and their security forces courageously … momentum has gathered in recent months. –Gen Petraeus WASHINGTON POST Op Ed
Oct 17, 2004--Some bloggers have gone as far as to suggest that there is an overarching conflict in society between the reality-based community and the "
faith-based community" as a whole. The source of the term is a quotation in an
October 17,
2004,
New York Times Magazine article by writer
Ron Suskind, quoting an unnamed aide to
George W. Bush: The aide said that guys like me were "in what we call the reality-based community," which he defined as people who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality." ... "That's not the way the world really works anymore," he continued. "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do." PSYCHOSIS: any severe mental disorder, with or without organic damage, characterized by deterioration of normal intellectual and social functioning and by partial or complete withdrawal from reality--American Heritage Dictionary
June 2004: Handover of sovereignty to Iraqis: number of daily attacks on US forces: 45
--Jan. 26, 2004--. . . most of the senior members of the Bush Administration come across in Suskind’s book [with former Treasury Sec. O’Neill] as political opportunists with no real interest in economics. They are much more concerned with delivering goodies to the President’s political base of wealthy corporate executives and conservative activists, regardless of long-term consequences. NEW YORKER,p.24
Jan. 2004—The people of Iraq are free. Kaiser George II, State of the Union
Dec. 2003: Saddam Hussein captured; number of daily attacks on US forces: 19
--August 20, 2003—This is a thinking enemy that changes, and as he changes, we need to change. And attacking the UN mission was a change. Now, what has he just told us, this enemy? … Our theme should be that Iraqis should not allow foreign fighters to come into Iraq. We need to lay on a sense of nationalism that will motivate Iraqis to cooperate with us to exclude the foreigners. … “—Bush II to NSC
July 2003: Bremer Appoints Iraqi Governing Council; number of daily attacks on US forces: 16
July 2, 2003—Emperor George II declares “Bring ‘em on!”
May 29, 2003—“We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories.”—Kaiser George the Second
May 27, 2003—secret Defense Intelligence Agency-sponsored mission finds no biological weapons in trailers captured by USA forces
May 1, 2003—Emperor George II prances about the USS Abraham Lincoln declaring MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
February 25, 2003—“something on the order of several hundred thousand soldiers are probably, you know, a figure that would be required [for an occupation of Iraq following a successful completion of the war]”—Gen. Shinseki, Chief of Staff of the Army
October 2002. Anyone who has studied the history of American diplomacy, especially military diplomacy, knows that you might start a war with certain things on your mind as a purpose of what you are doing, but in the end, you found yourself fighting for entirely different things that you had never thought of before. In other words, war has a momentum of its own and it carries you away from all thoughtful intentions when you get into it. –George Kennan (author of containment doctrine v. USSR) NYRB, p. 96 Dec. 21, 2006
--Sept 29, 2002--Why does the administration seem unconcerned about an exit strategy from Iraq once Saddam is toppled? Because we won’t be leaving. Having conquered Iraq, the United States will create permanent military bases in that country from which to dominate the Middle East, including neighboring Iran. Jay Bookman, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sept. 26, 2002. Today if we went into Iraq, like the president would like us to do, you know where you begin. You never know where you are going to end. –George Kennan (author of containment doctrine v. USSR) NYRB, p. 82 Dec. 21, 2006
Fall, 2002—“Vietnam? You think you have to tell me about Vietnam? Of course it won’t be Vietnam. We are going to go in, overthrow Saddam, get out. That’s it.”—Donald Rumsfeld to secretaries of US Army and Air Force
August 15, 2002—“The United States could certainly defeat the Iraqi military and destroy Saddam’s regime. But it would not be a cakewalk . . . the central point is that any campaign against Iraq, whatever the strategy, cost and risks, is certain to divert us for some indefinite period from our war on terrorism. . . . Possibly the most dire consequences would be the effect in the region.”—Brent Scowcroft, national security adviser under Gerald Ford and George I
-July 22, 2002—George W Bush is our first MBA President. He boasted of his private-sector experience during the campaign, contrasting it favorably with his opponent’s long record in public office. He has been pictured as the government’s CEO, with Vice-President Cheney as his COO and the Cabinet as his Board. All this looks different now. Bush’s business experience is turning out to have been the wrong kind. His career in oil and baseball is studded with exactly the insider-only benefits that are now the stuff of business-page scandals: unearned stock options, below-prime loans, curiously well-timed stock sales, earning “restatements.” NEW YORKER, p65
Summer 2002—“Wouldn’t it be a wonderful thing if Iraq were similar to Afghanistan—if a bad regime was thrown out, people were liberated, food could come in, borders could be opened, repression could stop, prisons could be opened? I mean, it would be fabulous.”—Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, at a Pentagon briefing
Spring 2002—The primary impetus for invading Iraq, according to those attending NSC briefings on the Gulf in this period, was to make an example of Hussein, to create a demonstration model to guide the behavior of anyone with the temerity to acquire destructive weapons, or, in any way, flout the authority of the United States. –Ron Suskind, The One Percent Doctrine
June 2001-- We run a uniquely benign imperium… This is not mere self-congratulation; it is a fact manifest in the way others welcome our power.” Charles Krauthammer, WEEKLY STANDARD, June 2001
--Nov. 2001—Herbits [Rumsfeld consultant and friend] was very happy with the way Bletchley II [neoconservative Middle East memo for US war cabinet members] had worked out … Summarizing their conclusions, Herbits said, “We’re facing a two-generation war. And start with Iraq.”
1999—“My inclination was to support the government and the [Vietnam] war until proven wrong and that only came later, as I realized we could not explain the mission, had no exit strategy, and did not seem to be fighting to win.” G.W. Bush in his Autobiographery
--1986: People don’t have aims. Young people, up to 23, they still fall for that. A person who has lived five decades has no aims, because there’s no goal. –Thomas Bernhard, HARPERS p. 18 Aug. 2007
1965--Even if it fails, the policy will be worth it. At a minimum it will damp down the charge that we did not do all that we could have done, and this charge will be important in many countries, including our own.—McGeorge Bundy to LBJ, 2-7-1965, concerning an escalation plan for Vietnam that Bundy thought might have as little as a 25% chance of success
1965—internal memo to LBJ quantifying USA objectives in Vietnam: 70%, to avoid a humiliating US defeat; 20%, to keep South Vietnam territory from Chinese hands; 10%, to permit South Vietnamese to enjoy a better, freer way of life. –Lytle, AMERICA’S UNCIVIL WARS, p 176
1943-- That tall man in the flowing robe you are going to see soon, with the whiskers and the long hair, is a first-class fighting man, highly skilled in guerilla warfare. --Instructions for American Servicemen in Iraq, 1943-- HARPERS, July 2007, p. 20.
1818-1820--In August 1818 George (IV) sent his own trio of “commissioners” to Milan to assemble evidence [of adultery] which might be used [grounds for divorce against his wife Caroline] … Former servants testified that Pergami had often entered Caroline’s rooms late at night, that she had been seen fondling him in public; according to her former postilion, Pergami had frequently joined the Princess in her bath (although, as [one historian has pointed out], “if her normal routine was anything to go by, [it] cannot have been that often… While George (IV) was eagerly digging up evidence of his wife’s adultery [in Italy], he never ceased committing adultery himself [with Lady Jersey, Lady Hertford, Lady Conyngham, actresses, singers, dancers, and Mrs. Fitzherbert, a Catholic George had secretly married] … When George III died in January 1820, Caroline technically became Queen consort, and the cabinet had not option but to give serious consideration to the question of a divorce. … The British public remained firmly on Caroline’s side. When a boatload of Italian witnesses for the prosecution landed in Dover, they were attacked by furious fishwives who beat them with sticks and scratched their faces until they could retreat to safety. … As queen Caroline found decorum with lightning speed. No more pumpkins on her head or dresses cut so low that her breasts dangled out of them. … [At the trial] on cross examination all of the servants [for the prosecution] admitted to being well paid for their time and living expenses in Engla or to being dismissed by the princess for poor work performance…[Testimony from Caroline’s former servant Teodoro Majocchi] was successfully, and wittiy, undermined during cross examination by Brougham [Caroline’s counsel]. Fully aware of the power of the popular press and the print-makers, he contrived to make Majocchi’s repeated and flustered protestation ‘Non mi recordo’ (“I don’t recall”) a national catch phrase.
1806--The very word “guerilla,” which now refers only to a tactic, was first used to describe the ferocious insurgency of the illiterate Spanish poor against their would-be liberators, under the leadership of their traditional oppressors. On July 6, 1806, King Joseph of Spain presented a draft constitution that for the first time in Spain’s history offered an independent judiciary, freedom of the press, and the abolition of the remaining feudal privileges of the aristocracy and of the Church. At that time, abbeys, monasteries, and bishops still owned every building and every piece of land in 3,148 towns and villages, which were inhabited by some of Europe’s most wretched tenants. Despite the fact that the new constitution would have liberated them and let them keep their harvests for themselves, the Spanish peasantry failed to rise up in its support. Instead, they obeyed the priests, who summoned them to fight against the ungodly innovations of the foreign invader. For Joseph was the brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, placed on the Spanish throne by French troops. That was all that mattered to most Spaniards—not what was proposed but by whom it was proposed.
By then the French should have known better. In 1799 the same thing had happened in Naples, whose liberals, supported by the French, were slaughtered by the very peasants and plebians they wished to emancipate.
--Edward Luttwak, senior fellow at Center for Strategic and International Studies, HARPERS, Feb. 2007, p34
1793—[proclaiming ‘the rights of man’—liberty equality and fraternity] French armies claimed to be liberators when they invaded Germany and other West European countries. Initially, many Belgians, Dutch and Germans welcomed them as such, but the French soon outwore their welcome by flaunting a sense of their own superiority. Moreover, their demands for material contributions for the support of the occupying armies turned popular feeling against them and everything they stood for, first in Spain, then in Germany. Spreading national consciousness swiftly provoked a new intensity of mobilization against the French that overthrew Napoleon and his empire in 1814 and 1815. –NYRB p 16, Dec. 21, 2006.
1683—In Siege of Vienna by Turks, Kasa Mustapha (grand vizier leading Ottoman army) “wanted to take Vienna quickly and when he could not, he began making mistakes. It seems not to have occurred to him that he needed a defensive strategy as well as an offensive one…” ---WSJ 12-6-06 D12, review of Prof. John Stoye’s The Siege of Vienna
400-320—BCE--Now when the army marches abroad, the treasury will be emptied at home. . . When the army engages in protracted campaigns the resources of the state will not suffice. . . For there has never been a protracted war from which a country has benefited. . .Hence what is essential in war is victory, not prolonged operations. . . To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.
--Sun Tzu, THE ART OF WAR
416 BCE. . . we cannot fix the exact point at which our empire shall stop; we have reached a position in which we must not be content with retaining what we have but must scheme to extend it for, if we cease to rule others, we shall be in danger of being ruled ourselves. –Alcibiades, spoiled Athenian rich kid, advocating military adventure against Syracuse
. .. even if we leave Athens with a force . . . at all points superior to [the enemy], we shall still find it difficult to conquer Sicily and save ourselves.—Nicias, opposing Alcibiades
With this enthusiasm of the majority [for the invasion of Syracuse], the few that did not like it feared to appear unpatriotic by holding up their hands against it, and so kept quiet. –Thucydides
Few indeed have been the large armaments, either Hellenic or barbarian, that have gone far from home and been successful.—Hermocrates of Syracuse
432 BCE. . . I see those among you of the same age as myself, who will not fall into the common misfortune of longing for war from inexperience or from a belief in its advantage and its safety—Archidamus, King of Sparta,
472 BCE--DARIUS [GHWB,41]: Therefore those hopes are vain with which Xerxes [Darius’ son, cf. GWB,43] now leaves behind the choicest of his men. . . there wait too ruin and untold pain, which they must yet endure—The just reward of pride and godless insolence. . . soon new disaster gushes forth . . . dead heaped on dead shall bear dumb witness to three generations hence that man is mortal, and must learn to curb his pride. For pride will blossom; soon its ripening kernel is infatuation; and its bitter harvest, tears. Behold their folly and its recompense. . . . Zeus, throned on high, sternly chastises arrogant and boastful men. . . .
XERXES: Behold me, theme for sorrow, a loathed and piteous outcast, born to destroy my race.
--Aeschylus, THE PERSIANS
~3,700,000,000 BCE—life on earth begins as pond scum in battery acid--maybe
